


So Baby Hold On To My Heart

by VintageOT5



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Bad Puns, Christmas AU, Fluff, Ghost Hunter AU, Hijinks, Larry at the end, M/M, Zayn is secretly a giant sap, only sad for a little bit, slight mentions of violence, the fluffiest horror fic One Direction has ever been a part of, ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-03-14 13:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 30,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3412247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageOT5/pseuds/VintageOT5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn knows it's probably too close to the holidays to take on a new assignment--probably knows because Louis won't let him forget it--but he's genuinely curious as to what supernatural creature only targets males and rips their hearts and dicks out. He's quite interested in dead things that won't stay dead, and also a Liam Payne, a local of the town who seems to hold secrets of his own.</p><p>Or the one where Zayn is a ghost hunter and Louis is his ever-sassy sidekick, Liam runs a hotel and knows more than he lets on, Niall is a car mechanic who is more attentive than people give him credit for, and Harry is a baker. Because what else would Harry be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Getting Into The Mess

**Author's Note:**

> So......if you showed up here hoping for accurate horror like the kind in Supernatural...you may or may not kinda sorta possibly be a teeny tiny bit disappointed with this fic. Sorry. However, if you are here and are game for the never-ending antics of One Direction's interactions with one another, you are so very in luck.
> 
> I was originally supposed to write this for a Christmas fic exchange...it is now late February. Ahem. Forgive me, Sarah. I'm only originally posting the first part, but I am eager to continue this if people like it. So LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE IT!
> 
> Enjoy.

Sometimes Zayn wondered why he ever thought partnering with Louis Tomlinson was a good idea. He sighed and lifted his phone away from his ear and pressed the button for speakerphone, setting it into a cup holder. “Say that again, mate, I lost you.”

" _Sure you did,”_ Louis’ voice muttered, probably in a volume he thought Zayn wouldn’t catch, but everything about Louis was loud and pronounced and Zayn caught it anyway. _“This isn’t just about you. It’s about what’s best for all of us.”_

“Really,” Zayn replied, raising an eyebrow at the road ahead of him. “I wasn’t aware that my taking an easy, solo job out in the middle of Ohio was going to tear all of us apart.”

" _It’s a week to Christmas, mate! You’re supposed to be home, enjoying a peaceful, non-haunted Christmas with us, playing your stupid Bing Crosby Christmas album at ungodly volumes and spiking the eggnog and taking hits while we watch_ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! _You don’t just take a job on December fucking sixteenth! Plus, now I’ve got to ask Paul to borrow his car if I want to go anywhere, now that you’ve got mine.”_

Even though he knew Louis wouldn’t be able to see, Zayn shrugged. “It’s mine, too, you know, we split on it. And from everything we were told, the job is going to be easy enough. Something dead’s gone restless up near a small town outside of Hocking Hills, just go in and kill it. I’ll be back before Christmas Eve.”

_“The job did not sound half as easy as you’re pretending it did. Are you sure this isn’t just you trying to avoid us?”_

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Zayn replied, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. It wasn’t quite _avoiding_ them, per se…it was just escaping their noise so he could think a bit more clearly.

 _“I can actually hear the lying in your voice, mate,”_ Louis responded drily, sounding unimpressed, and Zayn felt a bit of shame bubble up in his chest.

There was a long gust of breath on the other end, and then, _“If working alone is how you unwind, then I guess I can’t stop you. Just…let me know how you’re doing now and then while you’re up there, yeah, mate? At least call on Christmas.”_

He shouldn’t have answered Louis’ call. He needed to end it before Louis laid it on so thick that Zayn felt guilty enough to turn back. “I’m supposed to give nightly updates to Paul, anyways, and since you two’ll be holed up in the apartment for the holidays, you can always pop in an insult or two before we hang up.”

_“Ah, music to my ears. Be careful, ‘kay, Malik? I don’t care how easy you think it’s going to be. Just be careful. And don’t you dare get a scratch on my car.”_

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Boo,” Zayn grinned, hanging up in the middle of Louis’ tirade of protests and disgusted noises. Bless him. Noisy though he was, Louis was great for a laugh.

As Zayn turned right at a fork in the path, following the sign for “Philipsburg, 3 miles”, he ran through all of the information the tip-off had left them.

Strange disappearances were happening to people of Philipsburg, most scattered sporadically over a period of the past two years, many more having happened in the past four months. People would wind up finding the disappearing people dead just outside of town, appearing to have been attacked savagely. No particular age group to the disappearances, but all the victims were male.

It wasn’t too much to go on, except for the carnage of each attack not matching the sort of carnage caused by the typical wild animals of the area, and DNA tests indicating the attacks weren’t caused by man-made materials. Zayn figured he would be able to get plenty more out of people around town once he found somewhere to stay, and as soon as he had details, he could be in and out in less than a week.

He made a left and found himself driving into town on Main Street. Slowing down, he scanned all the worn-out signs and the wearing paint on most of the buildings, taking in his surroundings and leaning an elbow against the car’s window ledge. Town wasn’t much, to be sure, but the familiar, ancient stench of haunted places and restless dead things was nowhere to be found, so it wasn’t quite the ghost town Zayn was almost expecting. The place must have been something better once, and gradually lost its former luster.

No matter. Towns like this were places he and Louis came from, and neither of them were too bad. Now if only he could find somewhere to stay.

Afterwards, Zayn wasn’t quite sure what caught his eye first. Farther down on the right side of the road, hanging above one of the doors, was the neon sign “PAYNE  OTEL”. And right smack in the middle of it, someone in a leather coat was on a ladder, facing away from the road, fiddling with the wires inside the “H” that seemed adamant on not glowing.

Slowly, Zayn came up to the scene and parked his car parallel to the sidewalk, peeking up through the sunroof and getting a better look. Someone with a short mess of light brown wavy hair, probably a man, Zayn guessed, from the larger build.

Zayn turned off the car and stepped out, pulling his coat closer around him as he made his way around to the sidewalk, and looked back up just in time to hear the man exclaim “Whoops!” and see the ladder toppling out towards the road. And then suddenly there was a terrible crashing noise and Zayn was flat on his back on the sidewalk with a load of wavy hair mashed up against his face and a much-heavier-than-he-looked body strewn on top of him.

Zayn coughed a couple times in surprise, wincing. “Jesus Christ,” he croaked, laboring to breathe under the body fallen on top of him.

The body wriggled a little, lifting his head and looking down at Zayn, and Zayn couldn’t help but pause. This couldn’t be a man much older than himself, not judging by the face. Wide eyes a warm brown color and a pretty mouth, slightly agape. Nope, Zayn decided. Younger than that. There was something distinctly boyish about his face, despite the shadow of facial hair along his jaw. Probably somewhere in his late teens.

Both didn’t move or speak for a whole two seconds, just blinking at each other in surprise.

“Oh, I am so, so sorry,” the boy stammered in a voice that reminded Zayn a little bit of Sunday schools and door-to-door missionaries. It caught Zayn off-guard enough that a corner of his mouth cocked up in a reassuring smile, despite having just been fallen upon.

“Nah, glad you had something to cushion the fall, mate,” Zayn replied as the boy scrambled off of him. “Probably a good idea to have someone holding your ladder, though.”

The boy’s laugh was nervous as they both stood to their feet, like he didn’t know if Zayn was upset or not. “Yeah, probably should’ve asked someone to—oh no, the ladder!”

Zayn turned and followed the boy’s horrified gaze to see the ladder lying haphazardly across the hood of his car, a dent where it had fallen and the nearest headlight completely smashed. Outwardly, Zayn did nothing but stare, but inside he was groaning and slamming his head against a wall. Not a scratch on the car, indeed. Fuck, Louis was going to _kill_ him.

The boy was already dragging the ladder off of the car and folding it up. “Oh, god, I’ve really smashed it there, I should’ve been paying more attention, being more careful, I’m so sorry, I’m such an idiot—”

Zayn stopped the boy from babbling apologies with a wave of his hand. “Wasn’t planning on going anywhere else tonight, anyways. Not if there’s a free room here.”

The boy blinked, looking lost. “Here? Out in the—oh, wait, you mean in my…”

Zayn took note of the boy’s long eyelashes as he blinked and stammered, pointing towards the door into the hotel.

“Ah, yes, I think…um. Well.”

Zayn couldn’t help a smile as he watched the tan skin of the boy’s neck and face flush a bright pink color. Cute, this one. The boy scratched the back of his neck and laughed nervously, looking everywhere but at Zayn, and then beckoned him with a tip of his head.

“Follow me in, then, I’ll just set the ladder aside…”

The hotel seemed about ten times homier and more inviting on the inside than it did on the outside, at least to Zayn. There was a working fireplace on the left wall with plenty of squishy chairs and sofas and a Christmas tree in the near left corner by the window facing Main Street. The boy, however, headed to the right and behind a desk where Zayn figured the guests checked in and out.

Zayn followed, examining all the plaques and framed certificates boasting the “Town’s Most Successful Establishment” and “Best Hotel in Central Ohio”, all awarding a man named Geoff Payne and his excellent hotel and inn.

“You Geoff Payne?” he asked the boy, who was clicking and typing in a flurry on the check-in computer.

He looked up blankly. “Hm?” Following Zayn’s gesture at the plaques, his face suddenly broke into a smile that had Zayn blinking rapidly and fighting a stupid returning grin. How could a simple smile make someone look so endearingly sweet and innocent, like a five-year-old on Christmas who got exactly what he wished for? Zayn had never seen anything of the kind.

                  “Oh, am _I_ —nah, that’s Dad. He’s off with Mum in Fort Lauderdale for the holidays and needed someone to manage the place until the end of March. I’m just Liam.”

 _Liam, Liam Payne_ , Zayn quietly filed away in the back of his mind before asking for a single room. “Parents trust you with the store?”

“Kinda have no choice, I guess, seeing as I’m the only child available,” Liam chuckled, and that wildly joyful smile was back on his face again as he checked Zayn in. “Nicola’s just gotten married and Ruth’s studying abroad in France, so it’s defaulted to me.”

“Weren’t sure they wanted the youngest running it in their place?” Zayn asked as he handed his card over to pay, then immediately felt stupid. Why was he asking questions? What did it matter? What did he care?

Liam shrugged, still smiling sweetly. “Basically. But I’ve been around here as long as I can remember, all twenty years I’ve been alive, I think I know how to manage their hotel.”

Twenty. Huh. Zayn wouldn’t have guessed, probably couldn’t have guessed, but twenty sounded pretty right. “Is it hard to run, alone?”

Liam shrugged, wrinkling his nose a teeny bit in a way that Zayn had to tell himself wasn’t adorable. “Nah, pretty simple, specially this time of year. Not too many people in and out, since they’re trying to get home for the holidays. I’ve got some mates I can phone when I need an extra hand. Oh, here’s your key, I’ve got you in 124, Mister…Malik.”

“Just Zayn,” he said, corner of his mouth quirked a teeny bit, and it quirked farther as he watched Liam’s neck flush slightly again.

“Zayn, right, okay,” Liam breathed, and that smile that could slay a thousand demons was back, and Zayn was literally incapable of stopping his own returning grin.

He thanked him and took the key, suddenly aware of the calloused tips of Liam’s fingers brushing with his. Zayn squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head quickly a couple of times; god, he needed to get his act together. Sure, Liam was cute, but not _that_ cute, not cute enough to be thinking about finger-brushing and all that cheesy, romantic shit. He was here because he had a job to do, and as he muttered that he needed to grab his bag out of his car, he did his best to remind himself that he would be in and out of this place in a few days, and wouldn’t be coming back, and he’d do well not to do something stupid like get attached to anyone.

 --

Clearly he needed to work harder on acting upon his own advice.

When Zayn woke up in the morning, he’d gotten cleaned up and dressed on autopilot, all the while occupied with how he was going to find out about the strange killings in a way that wouldn’t rouse the town’s suspicions. Twenty first century or not, people were always suspicious of the darker side of the supernatural and didn’t take kindly to the people who messed with it, good intentions or not. And this town was small; he would have to tread carefully.

He was so preoccupied with these thoughts that he was halfway out the front door to Main Street before he realized his name had been called multiple times. He turned around and looked back, confused, to see Liam looking at him with a tentative smile on his face, as if he wasn’t quite sure if Zayn was ignoring him or simply hadn’t heard.

“Sorry, mate, just a little lost in thought,” Zayn apologized, shutting the door and walking back inside a ways. “Something wrong?”

“Oh, oh no, nothing’s quite…nothing’s wrong,” Liam stammered, chuckling befuddledly, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets. “I was just—well, I mean, there’re a couple guys from town I get a cuppa and a bite with in the morning and…I mean, I suppose you’re probably busy, but you’re welcome to join—”

“Sure, of course,” Zayn heard himself saying, and Liam looked so relieved to be put out of his misery that Zayn didn’t have the heart to say that that had slipped out of his mouth automatically.

And that was how Zayn found himself sitting at a corner table in Sweet Nothings Bakery on 2nd Street with Liam Payne and one of his mates, a blonde, blue-eyed boy with a pronounced Irish accent named Niall Horan, being social and in a position to get attached. Great. Perfect, really. Just as planned. Not.

“So what’re you in town for, Zayn?” Niall asked, smiling amiably across the table at Zayn and leaning back in his chair and rubbing his stomach contentedly. (Somehow, he had consumed a whole five apple turnovers, and Zayn somehow doubted that he was actually full. He had no idea how that could be possible.)

Zayn shrugged, giving the same excuse he gave anyone who asked him while he was on assignment. “Just stopping through a while on my way up north. Heard some interesting things about Philipsburg.”

Niall scoffed, taking a sip from his mug of coffee and setting it back down on the table. “Interesting, huh. Pretty sure you’re in the wrong Philipsburg.”

“Yeah, mate. Sorry to disappoint you, but nothing actually interesting happens here,” Liam shrugged. “Nothing good, anyway.”

Zayn opened his mouth to press further, but before he got the chance to get a word out, there was suddenly a tall, broad-shouldered boy with an apron around his waist and a long mop of curly brown hair standing by the table.

He smiled at them all, a knowing glint in his green eyes. “Anyone need a refill here?”

“Ah, Harry, m’boy!” Niall exclaimed, sitting back up and clapping the boy on the back cheerily. “You wouldn’t happen to have more of those turnovers, would you?”

“Niall, you’re going to eat him out of business, mate,” Liam chuckled and shook his head, radiant smile aglow for all to see.

Harry’s gaze finally rested upon Zayn. “Not quite sure I know you.”

“Zayn’s staying at the hotel for a while,” Liam explained, and Harry nodded in understanding and offered a hand, which Zayn shook. “Zayn, this is our other friend, Harry Styles. He runs the bakery.”

“Yeah, and named the place, too, can you tell?” Niall chortled, while Harry pouted playfully and whined “heeeey”. Zayn and Liam both chuckled, and warning bells went off in Zayn’s head. Too friendly. Too close. He needed to keep a distance.

“Thankfully, he spares the time every now and then to help me out at the hotel, too,” Liam said, grinning up at the boy. “Appreciate that, you know.”

“’Course,” Harry replied, smiling back. “Mates have to have each other’s backs. I’ve got yours.”

Zayn couldn’t help grinning at Niall’s retching dramatics.

“Oh! Speaking of having each other’s backs…”

Liam turned to face Zayn, looking sheepish. “Niall here works in the body shop. He can fix that headlight for you that I’ve smashed. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it.”

Zayn scoffed, shaking his head. “No, you won’t. It’s my car.”

“But I’m the idiot who smashed it,” Liam protested, turning to Niall pleadingly. “Don’t tell him how much it costs. Just charge me.”

“You’re outvoted, mate, just accept it,” Harry grinned as Zayn spluttered in protest, watching Niall nod in agreement with Liam. Zayn finally sighed and shot Liam a Look of defeat.

“Well, I definitely appreciate that.”

Harry left at the call of another customer, and Niall sighed and stood to his feet.

“I’ll come with you to get your car and direct you to the shop, if you want. I’ll have to terrorize Styles for more turnovers another time.”

 --

“It’s not extremely bad, is it?” Zayn asked somewhat nervously as Niall examined the damage closely in the auto shop. He absolutely did not want Liam to have to pay more than the minimum price, and Louis would absolutely throttle him if the damage was extensive. Zayn had gathered all his courage and honesty and told Louis about the incident in his nightly report to Paul, and had suffered a chewing out full of curses and ridiculous threats.

He may be good for laughs, but Louis when angered was possibly the most terrifying experience of anyone’s mortal life.

Niall stood up from where he was crouching, examining the broken headlight and under the hood of the car. “Nothing I can’t fix. He really did in your light, but I can replace that, no problem.”

Zayn sighed in relief, and Niall grinned, walking past Zayn to a large array of stocked shelves.

"So, why are you really here, then, Zayn Malik?”

Zayn blinked, caught a little off-guard. “Uh, just passing through, like I said.”

Niall grabbed a box with a new headlight in it and turned back to Zayn, smirking. “The thing is, if you were just passing through, you’d already be gone. No one stays in Philipsburg if they’ve got someplace else they can be.”

Zayn wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond as Niall walked past him again and towards the car. Easygoing though he appeared, this Niall kid definitely noticed things more acutely than others.

“Plus, Liam wouldn’t have invited you to join us if he didn’t think you were going to stay a while,” Niall said, looking up at Zayn with a knowing look that made Zayn blush and his mouth pop open and shut repeatedly like a fish. Yeah, Niall was good.

He took a deep breath, deciding that adding a pinch of truth couldn’t hurt. “Just heard some strange stuff went on here. People disappearing, showing up dead.”

Niall’s smile dimmed, an almost-wary look covering his face.

“You mean the ghost killings?”

No matter how many times Zayn had encounters like this, he still felt a little chill zip through him. “Ghost, huh?”

Niall shook his head, rummaging through his toolbox. “’Course not. Don’t really buy too much of that ghost shit, mostly. But it certainly isn’t natural, what’s happening here.”

This was a great opening. “Do you know anything about it?”

Niall narrowed his eyes. “You a cop of some kind?”

“No, no, not at all,” Zayn replied quickly. No way would he wear the uniform, not after the things he’d been through while hunting. He’d have to arrest himself a thousand times over.

Niall didn’t look like he was any closer to being reassured, so Zayn threw in another sort-of truth. “I’m just really interested in stuff like this, stuff that people think is supernatural.”

This seemed to mollify Niall enough, and he shrugged, grabbing a wrench and crouching under the hood. “People nowadays just assume that if someone goes missing, you’ll find the body up on the shores of Lake Smith just outside of town. All the dead show up there, killed the exact same way.”

“All of them?” Zayn asked.

Niall nodded, working loose one of the screws. “Each one dead has their heart and their dick torn clean out. And those missing parts are never found, either.”

“Their _dick?_ ”

“Trust me, we’ve all tried to figure it out. Hasn’t been a single girl to turn up missing or dead, and every single guy who does is castrated and heartless.”

Zayn was frowning, thinking through every sort of creature he’d ever come across. This didn’t sound like anything instinctual, not a natural reaction or anything else. This might be more difficult than he anticipated.

“We’ve had to send the bodies to all sorts of experts and professionals to run DNA and forensic tests, and they’ve all turned up completely clean. Almost as if the parts just ripped themselves out of the bodies of their own accord. Not a trace of anything that isn’t meant to be there.”

“Huh,” Zayn said after a while, mulling it all over. If something ghostly was killing them, then the tests were bound to turn up empty. “All of the bodies turned up at Lake Smith, you say?”

Niall straightened back up, a Look on his face. “Wouldn’t recommend going up there, mate. Lots of the men in town who went up to investigate have disappeared that way.”

He should probably lower Niall’s suspicion. Zayn shrugged and shook his head. “You’ve got my car here, anyways. Probably couldn’t go if I wanted to.”

Niall nodded, looking satisfied. “And you probably won’t get a ride up there with Liam, either. Busy guy, Liam.”

“Seems like a pretty good guy,” Zayn remarked before he could stop himself, and he did his best to ignore Niall’s returning smirk. Great. Was it that obvious that Zayn was fond of the guy, in return? At least, Zayn hoped it was returned. It would be unfortunate for Liam if he stammered his way through most conversations, cute though it may be.

“If you want me to fix the dents in the hood, as well, then I’ll probably have your car here until tomorrow. That sound okay?”

Zayn nodded, knowing that if he didn’t get it fixed to look exactly like it had before, Louis would throttle him. “Sounds fine. I’m not going anywhere.”

“That interested in weird activity, huh?”

Zayn shifted weight to his other foot, not wanting to lie more than necessary. “Kinda draws me to it, more like. Like a magnet.”

Niall grinned and shook his head, muttering something about different strokes for different folks as Zayn said his goodbyes and headed out of the auto shop and back towards the hotel.

\-- 

“So what am I dealing with?” Zayn asked later that evening, laying back on his bed and staring at the ceiling, holding the phone to his ear.

To say that the returning silence made Zayn a little nervous was probably understating the issue. Normally, Paul had an absolute answer right away, or at least some sort of hunch.

 _“Well…there really aren’t any creatures I’ve come across that have those sorts of instincts, Malik,”_ Paul started.

 _“Yeah, regular castration is sort of a new one,”_ Louis remarked, and even though Zayn was still a little bit anxious, he couldn’t help a smile.

 _“Probably just looking at a pretty strong ghost with a revenge cycle, though,”_ Paul said.

Zayn’s next couple of breaths came a little easier. “Ah. Like the ghost Lou’ and I killed down in Georgia last summer?”

_“Probably.”_

_“Who cares that much about red scarves, anyway? They’re useless. Don’t see why all his targets had to be wearing them,”_ Louis reminisced, and it sounded like he had a bag of chips he was munching from as he spoke.

 _“And all the victims showed up on the shore of a lake, you say?”_ Paul asked.

“That’s what I was told,” Zayn sighed. “You think the thing killing them is _in_ the lake?”

" _Pretty safe bet to make, I’d wager.”_

Zayn groaned. “Great. Hopefully there won’t be any unexpected swims.”

 _“Isn’t it like negative five hundred degrees everywhere in the northwest right now? That lake should be frozen through, mate, you shouldn’t have to take any swims. Or half-drowns, more like, with your swimming skills,”_ Louis crunched and commented with a grin in his voice, and Zayn glared at the ceiling.

Just because he’d had one near-drowning experience when he was two and hated being in the water, and therefore didn’t properly _know_ how to swim, Louis had found it hilarious over the years to find the nearest body of water to Zayn and to push him into it, resulting in quite a few more near-death experiences than Zayn already dealt with in his job.

“So how am I supposed to kill it, then? If that thing’s living in the lake, it was probably drowned. How much good will holy water do?”

 _“Take some along, just in case. You never know,”_ Louis said, putting his jokes aside and being serious. _“And Paul bugs us both about having our exorcisms memorized, so you have those, too. Plus, you have your athame if all else fails and it has to get ugly.”_

 _“You still don’t know what you’re dealing with, Malik,”_ Paul reminded him. _“Remember, looking before you leap is—”_

“Ten times more important when you kill dead things,” Zayn and Louis both finished together. Zayn couldn’t count how many times he had heard that phrase come out of Paul’s mouth.

_“Right. I would scope out the situation first, see if you can learn anything more before jumping in.”_

There were a couple of laughs from down the hall, and Zayn turned to look at the door. “Right. I’ll call after I’ve gotten a closer look.”

Hanging up, Zayn grabbed his jacket and pulled on his shoes. Maybe Liam would know a little more about the lake. He could ask him.

He also maybe possibly just wanted an excuse to go out and make Liam stammer and blush and laugh and _god_ the kid was cute and maybe Zayn needed to stay in the hotel room after all. No, he couldn’t help it. He was going.

Harry was leaning against the desk counter, laughing along with Liam when Zayn came into the lobby.

“Oh, hey mate. Sorry if we were being a bit loud,” Harry apologized when he saw Zayn, smiling warmly.

Zayn shrugged, smiling back, a little wider when he made eye contact with Liam and saw his heart-stopping smile. “Nah, just needed to stretch out a bit. Hard at work?”

Harry chuckled. “Probably more like hardly working. I’m trying to see if Liam here has any idea what sort of message I should put up on the bakery sign for the holidays, and all we’ve amounted to is dick jokes.”

“Look, mate, it’s your fault you gave your bakery a cheesy name like ‘Sweet Nothings’. You’re practically begging to be bullied by the public,” Liam insisted, grinning and shoving in play at Harry’s shoulder.

“He’s kind of got a point,” Zayn agreed, externally fighting his reaction to the way Liam’s smile got even sweeter and the crinkles around the corners of Liam’s eyes stood out. Not cute, not cute, not cute, not—ah, forget it, it wasn’t working anyway.

“So, I’ve heard there’s not a lot to do around here?” Zayn said, broaching it in the form of a question.

Liam scoffed. “Nah, you’ve come to the wrong place if you were looking for a lot of things to do.”

“Yeah, pretty sure you could tour the town in, like, ten minutes by car,” Harry added, shaking his head. “You’d know all the roads and everything.”

Zayn raised his eyebrows, an idea beginning to form. “Really?”

“Definitely. All the houses and shops and alleys and all of it, ten minutes flat,” Liam said, a tentative smile on his face.

Well, there it was. Zayn smirked at Liam and folded his arms across his chest. “Okay, prove it.”

Liam blinked, looking surprised. “Prove what?”

“Can you tour your entire town in ten minutes flat?” Zayn asked, quirking an eyebrow, and he felt a rush of satisfaction when the skin of Liam’s neck flushed slightly. “I dare you.”

“Sure, we can,” Harry replied off to the side, rising to the bait. “We can even take my car, just need to lock up first.”

Zayn was still looking at Liam. “Can we?”

Liam’s cheeks colored just a little bit, but he stood up even straighter and nodded. “Challenge accepted.”

Just to make sure, as they were heading towards the front door, he added, “Alright, sounds like a deal. Everything from the front sign to the lake just beyond town, I wanna see.”

Liam paused, and Zayn didn’t know what to make of the look of grief that briefly swept over his face, taking the smile far away. “Oh, the lake?”

Zayn frowned just a little bit. “Yeah, Lake Smith, I think it is?”

There was an awkward pause, and then Harry spoke up. “I’ll take him, Liam, it’s fine.”

Zayn still didn’t know what happened. “You okay, mate?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m—I’m fine,” Liam shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. “Just…I don’t really go to the lake, anymore. But it’s totally fine, you go. Harry’ll show you—it really only takes ten minutes.”

“We really don’t have—”

“Are you forfeiting the bet?”

“Well, no, I mean—”

“Then let Harry take you,” Liam said firmly, a little bit of a smile returning. “Loser buys drinks down at Grimmy’s tonight. He’ll show you where Grimmy’s is, too. I’ll meet you guys there.”

The little smile reassured Zayn just enough, although he was still not sure what went wrong. “Okay, mate, I guess you’re on.”

He turned back around to Harry, who smiled and beckoned towards the door, and the two of them walked out together.

“Did I say something?” Zayn asked once he and Harry got back to the bakery, which was now closed for the evening.

“Say what, mate?” Harry asked, flipping the sign over to “Sorry, we’re closed” and turning out lights.

Zayn shifted from one foot to another, drawing the courage to bring Liam up. “Just think I probably offended Liam, somehow, if he isn’t tagging along.”

Understanding lit up Harry’s face as they left the building the back way. “Oh, that,” he said, locking the door and walking towards the beat-up truck parked in back. “It wasn’t you, mate, promise.”

Zayn climbed into Harry’s passenger seat and strapped in, deciding that he would probably learn more if he let Harry continue at his own pace. Harry climbed up and started the truck after a couple second-chance turns at the ignition, muttering about needing to take “poor Helga” in to “Niall’s place” for “whatever tinkering the bloke does”.

“The thing with Liam,” Harry finally continued as he backed out, “is that places really remind him of things. Sentimental little shit, he is.”

Zayn smiled privately as Harry chuckled. “And that lake is one of them. Sits on the Smith property, that’s where it got the name, of course. He used to date the Smith girl a couple years back.”

Oh. Zayn gulped and told himself mentally that it shouldn’t matter that much, of course Liam was going to date girls, what the hell did he expect anyways, he wasn’t even supposed to be any sort of attached. But it didn’t help the aching sting in his chest. “Ah. His first girl, then?”

Harry scoffed. “Nah, but she was his last. Not into chasing the skirts after all, Payne. More of a blokes type. She didn’t take it too well.”

Zayn tried not to let the wave of relief washing through him carry him away. “Probably not. And she…?”

“She’s gone,” Harry said, face blank and a little bit hardened. “Gone, and not coming back. I think it still eats at him, a bit. They were up at her place a lot.”

“Sorry I mentioned it,” Zayn apologized, processing the new information.

Well. Turned out there was a lot of heart to Liam Payne, and that damned well shouldn’t have been so appealing to Zayn, but hell if he could help it. It was high time Zayn was into someone who had heart.

The thought kept nagging at him as Harry proceeded to drive up and down the different roads of Philipsburg, giving the grand tour. Into someone. Zayn had been there for a little over twenty-four hours, for fuck’s sake. That shouldn’t be possible, right? Hell, he didn’t even _know_ that much about Liam, anyways.

So there were two options.

One: he could focus really hard and be in and out of Philipsburg as planned.

Or two: he could try to fix not knowing Liam, and worst-case scenario, have an acquaintance.

He knew which one he needed to do. And definitely which one he wanted to do. And he was starting to realize which one would probably end up happening, as well.

Hm. Well.

“Alright, mate?”

Zayn blinked and realized Harry had addressed him. “Sorry?”

Harry grinned and shrugged. “Nothing. Probably aren’t too interested in my house, it’s fine.”

Oh. Zayn felt a flush creeping up the back of his neck as he darted his eyes around to where Harry was gesturing to. “It’s a nice place, actually. Share it with anyone?”

“My mum lived here with me for a bit, her place burned down a few years back. She found something new, so it’s just me now, though.”

“Lonely at all?”

“Nah, I’m at the bakery mostly. My big spoon will find me eventually.”

Zayn turned around, raising an eyebrow in amusement. “You’re the little spoon?”

Harry looked completely unabashed. “Just ‘cause I’m tall doesn’t mean someone can’t hold me.”

A laugh escaped Zayn before he could check it. “Sure, sure.”

Conversation with Harry, Zayn found, was like emptying a bottle of honey that had crusted just a little around the opening. Each of Harry’s words came smoothly, and there was nothing bitter in them, but they did take a little extra time. It wasn’t altogether unpleasant, though, and Zayn got on quite well with him as the tour of Philipsburg continued.

They ended up pausing at places and Harry would give him a little extra background, mostly just places where curious things had happened to Harry when he was younger. It did take a bit longer than ten minutes, but Harry seemed to be enjoying himself and seemed to have forgotten it was a bet, which struck Zayn as something that would be typical of Harry, anyways. Liam probably knew it, too, which meant drinks were going to be on him. Little devious bastard, Zayn thought with a smirk.

“And up that road is the Smith property, and the lake is just a little bit beyond it. And that, my friend, is the extent of Philipsburg.”

It looked like Harry was about to make a right to head back towards the center of town, but Zayn quickly intervened. “Can I see the lake?”

Harry blinked. “Uh, sure, mate, but I think it’s been past ten minutes…”

Zayn laughed a little. “Harry, it’s been just a little under an hour. We can spare time up at the lake, I should think, at this rate.”

Harry checked the time and chuckled sheepishly, turning the truck left, instead, onto the gravel road to the Smith property. “May have a point. Not much to look at, up at the lake, but we can give it a visit.”

The Smith house wasn’t much different from the rest of Philipsburg besides looking a bit newer, perhaps a bit better kept. There was a man at the door watching a dog, which came up to the fence and barked as Harry’s truck drove past. The man half-smiled and nodded at Harry, and Zayn watched Harry nod back.

They passed a barn and continued a ways, and then the lake was up on the right where the road ended. Without even thinking about it, Zayn shifted into an analyst mindset, eyeing the area sharply. “Lake” was probably more of a general term—it was more of a large pond. There was a wood dock near where the road ended, jutting out around ten feet into the lake, and the bank was covered mostly in cattails as far as the eye could see. On the far bank, there was a large cluster of trees.

Nothing too out of the ordinary.

Not yet. Zayn needed to poke it with a stick, see what happened. Test the waters, no pun intended. Oh boy, he cracked himself up sometimes.

“Lake Smith,” Harry announced unnecessarily, smiling.

Zayn grinned. “Not bad. Mind if I get out and explore?”

Harry laughed a little, looking at Zayn in confusion. “Why?”

And this was where he deployed Operation Immature. Zayn kept grinning and shrugged, opening his door. “Why not? Stretch our legs a bit, get some nice lake air.”

“Lake air? This lake is tiny!” Harry chuckled, but didn’t argue as he put the truck in park and got out, himself.

The frosted grass crunched under their boots and their breath came in smoky puffs as they walked towards the edge of the lake. Dusk was just settling over everything as Zayn stepped onto the dock and walked out slowly, faking a casual air but keeping his guard completely up.

Harry joined Zayn at the edge of the dock and looked out over the lake. Every last bit of the surface was frozen in swirly, marbled patterns, and from what Zayn could see, the ice was at least an inch or two thick. Midwest winters were brutal here, no doubt about it.

Harry took a quick breath in and out, hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched just a little. “You know, I’m not sure I like this place much. There’ve been people dying up here, I’m not sure you know.”

Zayn shrugged a little, gazing intently out over the lake, searching for, for…well, anything unusual. “Think Niall might have mentioned it this morning at the shop. Weird stuff.”

“Sad stuff, too. This town knows everyone; we’ve lost friends up here. Just can’t figure out how.”

There.

There it was.

Something out of the ordinary.

Zayn gestured towards the middle of the lake. “Do the Smiths have some sort of lighted fountain out there?”

Harry frowned. “Lighted fountain? Not that I knew of. This isn’t a man-made lake.”

Zayn pointed this time. “Then do you know what that is?”

Near the middle of the lake, definitely beneath the surface, was a muted teal glow. The silence that followed Zayn’s question cemented it—definitely something Zayn was looking for, something that shouldn’t be there.

“What _is_ that?” Harry asked quietly.

Zayn glanced at him and saw Harry staring intently at the spot. He checked Harry’s face quickly for all signs of a trance and was relieved when the typical ticks weren’t there.

“Looks like something’s rising from down there. Mate, this is creepy.”

Zayn turned back around and saw that the glow was getting brighter, spreading to cover a larger area under the water. Despite having handled situations far more threatening, Zayn couldn’t help feeling the customary flutter of panic in his chest. Thankfully, he knew how to handle it. He took a deep breath and shifted his right ankle just a tad, feeling where his athame was hiding in his boot. He could handle this. Nothing major.

The glow continued to spread, and then all of a sudden Zayn could make out the faint strains of a voice. It was a slow, musical hum, soft and smooth. Probably meant to be a calming sound, but Zayn felt his palms becoming the slightest bit clammy.

“Zayn, what the fuck is that? Do you hear that? Maybe we should leave…”

But whatever Harry was going to finish with was cut off as a giant patch of ice around six feet from the edge of the dock suddenly burst open with a shattering crack, sending crystalline chunks of ice hurtling up in the air.

“ _Holy shit_ ,” Harry shouted, grabbing Zayn’s arm tightly and starting to back up. “Come on, we need to get out of here!”

Zayn resisted just a little, staring at the opening. The glow was rippling in the water, still, and the humming was still faintly there, only now there was a voice. A female voice. A whisper.

_“Finally.”_

Zayn felt Harry completely stop moving, frozen in fear.

“ _Finally, one of them.”_

Zayn glanced quickly over his shoulder at Harry, saw his eyes wide and his face ashen. Okay, time to go.

“Move!” Zayn said, nudging Harry with the arm the boy was gripping.

Harry stumbled a little bit, looking completely horror-stricken, then slowly started backing away again.

_“Finally.”_

“We need to get out of here, let’s go!” Zayn shouted at Harry, taking action and starting to jog off the pier, throwing a glance over his shoulder. Nothing new to see, just the eerie glow and the gaping hole. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be something.

Zayn could live with that. But Harry obviously couldn’t.

 _“Finally, one of them_.”

“Come _on!_ ” Zayn insisted, yanking on Harry’s arm, and Harry finally started moving faster, breaking into a run next to Zayn all the way back to the truck, which was still running.

Harry threw himself into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut, and Zayn barely made it into his side before Harry had thrown the truck out of park and jammed the gas pedal down. The tires churned in surprise against the gravel before gaining purchase and jerking the car backwards. Zayn scrambled to sit upright and grab his seatbelt while Harry flung the wheel around in a flurry of arms and turned the truck back around before stepping on the gas again. Zayn glanced out the back window to see a bit of water splash up into the air a little, like someone throwing out a pail of it straight up.

The cattails around the shore were edged in the glowing light.

“ _What, the, fuck?!_ ” Harry exclaimed when they were out of sight of the lake and the Smith house, and Zayn realized they were both catching their breath as if they’d ran ten miles straight. “That was—what— _what just happened?_ ”

“I have no idea, mate!” Zayn replied, trying to sound just as terrified as Harry. “Does that shit happen a lot?”

“I have no idea,” Harry replied, and Zayn could feel the utter panic rolling in waves off of the poor boy. “I will not have any more idea. Never again. I am never going back there. The _fuck was that_ …”

Zayn leaned back against his seat as Harry kept muttering slowly calming hysterics to himself and processed everything again, just so he could report accurately to Paul everything that happened. A glowing light. A hum. Bursting ice. A voice.

 _Finally. Finally, one of them_.

What did that mean?

Harry’s driving was a bit jerkier than normal, and Zayn took pity. “Do the Smiths like to play practical jokes, maybe?”

Harry’s mouth seemed to be stuck shut, and his knuckles were white on the wheel. Wordlessly, he shook his head, then mustered out, “No idea. Don’t think so.”

Zayn took a deep breath in and out, trying to think of soothing things. “Well…that may have been far more than I was expecting. You give one hell of a tour. Bravo. Maybe drinks should be on me, after all.”

Zayn nearly passed out in relief when the corner of Harry’s mouth twitched just a little. He would be okay.

“Fine by me. Just know I’ll be buying the strongest shit Grimmy sells in that bar. My god.”

Harry rubbed a hand over his face and then left it over his mouth, eyes glazed like he was processing things.

It was nearly all the way dark when they finally pulled up into the lot behind a hole-in-the-wall building with crummy neon lights shining “Grimmy’s Sports Bar and Pub”. Zayn heard plenty of voices from inside as Harry pulled the key from the ignition and they both stepped out into the cold. Probably some sort of game night, no doubt.

It was moderately crowded inside as Zayn followed Harry inside. It seemed Harry knew exactly where to go, and Zayn figured he and his mates probably had a regular spot every night. He caught sight of Niall’s blonde head at the end of the bar and then Liam next to him, two empty spots right next to them.

“Looks like Styles lost the bet, then!” Liam laughed good-naturedly as Harry and Zayn made their way over. “What was that, over an hour?”

Zayn couldn’t help smiling back when Liam made eye contact with him. Damn, his smiles were contagious. Zayn shouldn’t even be smiling right now. Harry had had a good scare.

It seemed Harry was still pretty shaken, because he sat down next to Niall without a word and waved the bartender over. Liam looked at Harry in confusion, then at Zayn with a “what’s-wrong-with-him” look. Zayn made a sheepish face and sat down next to Liam.

“Harry and I had a bit of a scare, actually,” he explained as the bartender came over to them.

“Horan, want another? I’m on it. Looks like Payne’s still set. Ah, Styles! Good to see you, mate. Usual?”

Harry shook his head and muttered something about the strongest thing he had, and then the bartender was looking at Zayn, friendly smile on his face.

“And who might you be?”

“This is Zayn, he’s staying in town a couple days and I thought I’d bring him along,” Liam introduced. “Zayn, this is Nick Grimshaw.”

“God, Payne, you make me sound like a stiff,” the bartender teased, then turned back to Zayn. “Just Grimmy’s fine by me. Anything for you?”

Zayn ordered, then turned towards the other three in time to hear Harry mention the lake.

“—some sort of light out there under all the ice and some creepy-ass music and then someone blew a hole in the middle of the lake and—and—”

Harry’s mouth clamped shut and he glanced at Liam fleetingly.

Niall looked concerned. “Styles, take a deep breath. Are you sure you saw all of this?”

“Yes! Zayn was there with me!”

Niall’s gaze flickered to Zayn and his eyes narrowed the teeniest, tiniest bit. Zayn swallowed and shifted in his seat just slightly, remembering Niall’s advice from earlier that day. Advice he had completely ignored.

“That sounds really…off,” Niall ended, raising an eyebrow at Zayn in question.

Zayn met his gaze and gave him “I’ve-got-this” look. “It was some freaky shit, but I wonder if it wasn’t just some practical joke someone rigged to spook any visitors.”

Harry looked back at Zayn, exasperated. “Mate, you know it wasn’t that. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t some middle school prank. There’s something in that lake.”

All three of the others were looking at Zayn now, and he couldn’t help but feel a sinking in his chest. He shouldn’t have been so friendly with them all. Now he had accidentally dragged them into it. He looked at Liam, and there were so many different things in his eyes that Zayn had no idea what to think. He wanted to figure out what all of it meant. Lake. Liam. Everything.

This was going to take a little bit longer than he expected.


	2. Learning About The Mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you I'd update in a week or two! Here's installment two. I hope you enjoy it! PLEASE let me know down in the comments what you think of it! :)

A new message popped up in the corner of Zayn’s screen, so he minimized his search tab and clicked on it.

“Fucking finally,” Zayn muttered. He’d sent his message about two hours ago. Louis, lazy bastard, sleeping in till all hours.

This was the morning of the second day after Zayn and Harry’s encounter with the thing in the lake. Zayn had touched base the morning after and Paul had practically ordered him to lay low for a little while, reminding Zayn and Louis (who was eavesdropping, of course) of the last time they had aroused everyone’s suspicions. Zayn had winced and could have sworn he could feel Paul and Louis wincing, too—it hadn’t been pretty.

So Zayn had gotten breakfast with Liam and his mates again, picked up his car from Niall, and planted himself in the corner of the hotel lobby with his laptop to do some research. This was also for the benefit of having Liam to watch whenever Zayn got sick of going over the ghost encounter yet again, trying to think of something new to search.

Something was starting to happen with the two of them, or at least Zayn was getting that feeling. Nothing huge. Just a sort of comfortable interaction whenever they were around each other, more than just small talk. It felt right, almost natural to Zayn.

Maybe he shouldn’t think about that just yet.

Liam had asked now and again what Zayn was up to, and he had told him he was a freelance writer, finishing some hired work before he did some of his own. Liam had bought the lie without question, and Zayn tried to console himself with the mental reminder that English had been his best subject back in his school days, so it was totally plausible.

Louis had wanted to video chat with Zayn last night, but Zayn didn’t have any new angles to the case, so he had promised later in the week, to which Louis had grumbled and groaned and whined and complained and fussed and made Zayn remember why he did, in fact, partner with Louis. The old sap missed him, bless his salty little soul.

Right now, Zayn was at Sweet Nothings in the corner booth. He had already eaten with the others this morning, and they had already left to do their work, so he was just sitting in the booth wrapping up some more completely useless research. He had gone over everything. _Everything_. From the humming he had heard to the color of the glow in the lake. Searches turned up nothing he didn’t already know, which wasn’t helpful. He closed his eyes and ran over all the details again.

 _Finally. Finally, one of them_.

How had it known what he was?

That’s why Zayn had sent Louis a quick message earlier that morning.

_Z: Do you remember anything different about the dead on this case?_

Zayn checked Louis’ reply message.

_L: You got something?_

Zayn sighed and typed out his response. _It said something that makes me think it knows I’m a hunter. Were any of the dead in the past two years hunters, by any chance?_

"More coffee, mate?”

Zayn looked up from the screen at Harry, shrugging. “Sure. I’m not quite done yet.”

“I’ve got you, mate. Liam said you wrote freelance?”

Somewhere inside Zayn there was a twinge of guilt as he nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. Just hit a wall. A very hard wall.”

Harry smiled sympathetically as he filled Zayn’s mug again. “Sounds bloody awful. Wish I had good advice for you.”

Zayn shrugged. “Nah, good coffee is just as helpful. Thanks, mate.”

His computer pinged with a response, and Harry excused himself to help another customer.

 _L: Paul and I are looking through the files right now…I don’t think so…we’ll double-check_.

Well, fantastic. Just what Zayn wanted to hear. He breathed another sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, thinking it over again. So this thing had probably never defeated any hunters. Normally, ghosts didn’t know about the hunters until one of them crossed their path. But this one…this one seemed to know. Somehow. What else could what it said have meant, anyways?

Enough was enough. Zayn had his car back, good as new. Tonight, he needed to do some digging of his own, with no one else to accidentally entangle into this mess.

If it weren’t for Liam, Zayn would already be more than ready for this job to be over.

And it wasn’t just because the man was absolutely adorable in a way Zayn didn’t know it was possible for a nearly-adult man to be. It was just…well, Liam Payne was just this ray of _sunshine_. He always seemed _so happy_ to see everyone around him, from his mates to his customers to Zayn himself. Zayn didn’t understand how Liam didn’t just run out of happy, how he always seemed to have a tankful of it left. He always paid close attention to whatever someone was saying to him, like it was the most important thing in the world. It was easy to see how just being around Liam could make you feel special.

Plus his smile could probably actually end all of the wars happening in the world. True story.

In short, Liam was everything Zayn should avoid if he wanted to keep it protected.

Remembering this, Zayn made a face to himself, a bitter grimace. Zayn had learned the hard way that ghosts wouldn’t think twice about using the people who mattered to him against him. His mum and every single one of his sisters weren’t around anymore. That’s why Zayn only had Louis and Paul—at least the two people left who mattered to him knew how to defend themselves properly against anything that came their way.

The screen pinged again, and Zayn checked, a little bit of hope rising inside him.

_L: No hunters, mate. Sorry._

And the hope was gone again. Zayn shook his head and shut his laptop. Alright. Well. He needed a break from desperately wracking his brains. He would get the answers he needed tonight, hopefully kill the thing then, too, and then what would it matter if the thing had met a hunter before or not?

Liam was juggling a ton of boxes in his arms when Zayn came back into the hotel lobby.

Zayn raised an eyebrow. “Having…fun, there?”

“Zayn!”

Liam turned himself around to face the door with a little too much enthusiasm, and a few of the boxes came toppling out of his grasp. Zayn tried not to smile as he set his things aside and walked over to pick them up.

“Oops,” Liam apologized, face flushed. “Tried to take them all at once.”

Zayn stacked them carefully in his arms and stood back up. “What are you doing with them?”

“Oh, I got the Christmas decorations out of these boxes. I just haven’t put the boxes back yet. Here, I’m taking them back this way…”

Zayn followed a cautious Liam behind the front desk and into a back room with all sorts of shelves full of different sized boxes. Liam wobbled up onto a stepstool and set them all on a shelf in the corner, starting to rearrange them once his arms were free.

“How are you, Liam?” Zayn found himself asking. What the fuck? What even was that?

Clearly his flirting skills were extremely rusty.

Liam laughed a little, looking confused. “I’m…fine, I think.”

“Yeah?” Zayn said, groaning internally as he tried and failed to stop himself from continuing on. “Hotel’s good? Nothing you can’t handle?”

Liam still looked lost, but Zayn felt relief as Liam just rolled with it. “Yeah, holiday season’s normally pretty slow here. Dad probably knew that before he left me in charge.”

Zayn nodded, handing Liam the boxes in his hands for Liam to put away. “Your dad gonna pass this place on to you someday? A father-son thing?”

Liam looked completely nonplussed, and Zayn gave up and laughed aloud at himself.

“Sorry, I have no idea how these things work,” he chuckled, and felt much better once Liam started laughing along with him, eyes crinkled up in that really adorable way.

“That’s alright,” Liam laughed, putting the boxes Zayn had handed him away. “I mean, Dad’s never actually said anything about it in so many words, but I really get that feeling a lot.”

Zayn smiled. “That the dream, then? Running the ‘Town’s Most Successful Establishment’?”

Liam rolled his eyes, recognizing Zayn quoting one of the plaques.

“Really, though, mate,” Zayn said, grinning. “That wouldn’t be awful if that’s what you wanted to do.”

Liam shrugged, a half-smile on his face. “Sometimes seems like that’s what I’ll end up doing.”

“What do you _want_ to do?” Zayn asked, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against one of the shelves, watching Liam with interest.

He wasn’t disappointed. Liam’s smile was sweet as ever as he climbed off the footstool and sat on it instead, resting his arms on his knees. “Not sure yet, really. Thought about going to school somewhere, maybe some liberal arts place. Really like music.”

Zayn raised his eyebrows, nodding. “Music’s pretty cool. You play an instrument?”

“I just sing right now, no instruments yet,” Liam said sheepishly, like somehow what he’d said was stupid.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Zayn replied, shaking his head and smiling. “Wish I could carry a tune, myself.”

Liam scoffed. “Right. As if you didn’t know you could sing.”

And then Liam’s eyes got really big. “Shit. Sorry, that was…well. Sorry.”

Zayn was so confused he just laughed a little. “Have you heard me sing or something?”

Liam’s face was about as red as lipstick, and suddenly he couldn’t look Zayn in the eye. “Oh, um…well, see, the showers in every room are close to the hallway, and…the other morning, I was walking through your hall to the broom closet, and…well…”

Now it was Zayn’s turn to blush. Oh god, Liam had heard him singing in the shower. Why? Why did the gods of love and romance hate him in this way?

Probably best to play it off like he wasn’t quite as embarrassed as he felt. He groaned good-naturedly and lifted a hand to his forehead, grinning.

“Tell me you didn’t hear me holding my own personal concert in the shower,” Zayn laughed.

Liam sounded relieved as he started laughing along. “Everyone does it, nothing to worry about. From what I heard, you’re aces at it. Probably pick up all the girls that way.”

It was Zayn’s turn to scoff. “I’m sure I couldn’t care less if the girls liked my voice. Not much of a girls person, myself.”

Liam coughed in surprise, and Zayn suddenly realized what exactly he had just said.

He just came out to Liam completely on accident.

That was…um.

“I…ah,” Liam stammered a little. “Well…neither am I.”

All Zayn could do was blink.

There was a second of awkward silence, and then Zayn burst out laughing just as Liam did, both of them doubling over and trying to catch their breath.

“Oh—oh god, mate,” Liam gasped out, still laughing. “I’m sorry, that—that was…”

“Hilarious,” Zayn finished for him, trying and failing to calm himself down.

Liam giggled, and Zayn literally could not believe how utterly adorable the sound was. “We’ve barely known each other four days!”

Zayn tried deep breaths and finally calmed himself down enough to speak an intelligible sentence, still grinning. “I dunno, mate. Sometimes the strangers are the people it’s easiest to tell.”

“You’re hardly a stranger,” Liam smiled, nudging Zayn’s leg with his toe. “What kind of stranger would I invite to breakfast every morning with my mates?”

Zayn smirked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve been wondering that, myself. No one ever told you about stranger danger?”

Liam made a face, standing back up and stretching just a little. “I like to think I pick the right people to trust.”

Zayn wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. The blush on the back of his neck was probably an indicator, though.

“Hey, so tonight is Philipsburg’s annual Christmas party out at the McPherson’s farm…I don’t know if you remember where that was? Out near the front of town?”

Zayn nodded. “Yeah, Harry pointed it out, said something about their cat cutting his knee open?”

“Never lets that one go, does he,” Liam chuckled. “He’d show you the scar if you asked, I’m sure. Regardless, the lads and I were wondering if you’d want to come with, since there won’t be much around here that’s open, since everyone will be there.”

“Oh?” Zayn replied, thinking quickly. He still needed to check out what was going on at that lake. But did he need to do that tonight? The sooner he killed the thing, the sooner Paul and Louis would drag him back home. And the sooner he’d have to leave Liam and his friends behind.

“Sound like fun? Of course if you’re gonna be busy writing…” Liam started.

Zayn found himself shaking his head and making a face. “I’m kind of shit at writing unless I’m inspired. A Christmas party sounds like fun.”

He’d go to this party, investigate the lake more tomorrow night. A single night wouldn’t change anything. Plus maybe he could learn more stuff without having to get his hands dirty by just being at the party, around other townspeople.

Yes. Brilliant.

Everyone wins.

Liam was grinning like anything again. “Sweet.”

“What are strangers for?” Zayn replied, winking before even considering whether or not it was a good idea. The way Liam’s cheekbones brightened to a rosy color answered that—yes.

This had the chance to get really interesting.

\--

“Look, Payno managed to drag the freelancer with him after all!” Niall exclaimed, smiling amiably at both Zayn and Liam as they made their way to the entrance of the barn. Harry was there next to Niall, smiling at Zayn as if he was one of their lifelong friends, too.

Zayn offered a tentative smile back, and the Irishman just waggled his eyebrows once in a way that indicated all was forgiven from a couple of days back.

“Didn’t take much convincing, actually,” Zayn shrugged good-naturedly. “I’ll take any chance to step away from my work if I’m stuck.”

“Well, you chose the right place to step away to,” Niall said, flinging an arm over Zayn’s shoulders, then Liam’s. “This is me uncle’s house, and he makes some pretty amazing holiday food. Hope you’re hungry.”

“Probably not as hungry as you,” Liam chuckled, and Niall laughed along with the rest of them and led them inside.

“Clean barn your uncle’s got here,” Zayn commented, looking around with curiosity. There were garlands and wreaths and fairy lights hanging from the rafters, and all around were tables full of people eating and talking and laughing. He was pretty sure he could hear Christmas music playing under the general din of people.

“They don’t keep much livestock anymore,” Niall explained, steering the group towards the table full of food in the back. “My aunt starts cleaning the place right after Thanksgiving, though.”

“She’s nice, your aunt,” Harry said thoughtfully, picking up a paper plate and starting down the line. “Has that demon cat, though.”

“Not the cat again,” Liam groaned playfully, grinning at Zayn knowingly. Zayn bit his lip and tried not to laugh.

“Mean thing, it is!” Harry insisted. “Nearly tore my kneecap out.”

“No need for the dramatics this year, Styles,” Niall said, getting a plate of his own. “I made sure they locked it up in the house.”

“Thanks, mate. Don’t want to die before Christmas,” Harry said in relief. Zayn again tried not to laugh when Liam turned away from Harry and made a goofy face.

It was nice, Zayn decided. He hadn’t been to anything like this in a long time. He’d nearly forgotten how comforting it was, being surrounded by good homemade food and friendly people. He sat with the other three at a table near the back, and he was always a little surprised when multiple people stopped by the table to say hello or talk about goings-on. Relatives, neighbors, school teachers, former classmates…all sorts of people. Zayn recognized a couple of people from his couple of times at Harry’s bakery in the mornings, even—went to show how small the place really was.

What really got Zayn, though, was that everyone was interested in knowing who he was. That in itself was nothing new—most times when he was on assignment, people wanted to know. The pleasant surprise was Liam always introducing him as “our friend, Zayn. He’s from out of town.”

Somewhere in the past half a week, he had changed from a guest at the hotel to their friend.

It made something in Zayn’s chest tighten just a little, not unpleasantly.

“Ah, yes, the Golden Trio,” the bartender, Grimmy, declared when he came up to the table. He caught sight of Zayn and winked. “Plus one.”

“Hiya, Grimmy,” Harry replied pleasantly, swallowing the remaining bite in his mouth.

“Styles, baby, how _are_ you?” Grimmy asked, taking a seat next to the baker.

Liam turned to Zayn and made another face.

“Grimmy’s had a pretty ridiculous crush on Harry for ages now,” Liam said quietly to Zayn. “Harry doesn’t really like him that way, but that hasn’t stopped Grimmy from trying. Harry’s a little too nice to shut Grimmy down completely.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow. “Harry’s a blokes person, too?”

Liam’s eyes widened, and then he groaned and slapped a hand over his face. “Shit. Probably wasn’t my place to tell you that.”

“It’s fine,” Zayn chuckled, watching Liam peek at him tentatively through the gaps in his fingers (not cute not cute not cute oh who was he kidding). “I sort of picked up on that from the lack of girls other than family in his life story on our tour. And the fact that he’s a little spoon.”

Liam dropped his hand and made a face. “Perceptive, aren’t you.”

“I like to think so,” Zayn smirked, enjoying the blush on Liam’s face in the aftermath.

Zayn took a deep breath and let his curiosity get the better of him. “So do you like him?”

“ _Harry_?”

“Okay, maybe not,” Zayn laughed, lifting his hands in surrender at the look of horror on Liam’s face. “So not the best-friends-becoming-boyfriends thing, then. What about Grimmy?”

After recovering from the previous question, Liam shrugged, wrinkling his nose the teeniest bit. “Not really my type, but I guess he’s nice enough.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow, curious. “What is your type, then?”

Liam coughed a little, blinking. “My…my type?”

“’Course, everyone’s got a type,” Zayn grinned, feeling a strange sense of enjoyment in knowing he was making Liam squirm just a little. “So not girls, or childhood friends, or the bartender…what’s the type?”

Zayn shouldn’t have been entranced by the motion of Liam’s Adam’s apple bobbing as he gulped. “Well….I-I dunno, really, just—”

“Oi, you lot!”

Zayn and Liam turned to see Niall standing by the table, grinning at all of them.

“Me uncle’s lighting the bonfire outside. Pretty cold, though, so thought you’d want to come sit closest to the fire to keep warm.”

Liam looked extremely relieved and jumped out of his seat first. “Bonfire. Right. Come on, Zayn, this is the best part of the whole party.”

“You certainly don’t do Christmas parties in half-measures here,” Zayn smiled, getting out of his seat and following Liam to the back doors of the barn.

“Don’t ye know small towns do it right?” Niall asked jovially, beckoning at Harry and Grimmy to come. “You two lads join us, too.”

Niall certainly wasn’t wrong about the cold. Zayn shivered and zipped his jacket all the way up, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he stepped out of the barn behind the other lads. There was a small hill sloping up just behind the barn, and at the top not too far off, Zayn could make out a couple of men’s silhouettes against the warm glow of a growing fire.

“How exactly is freezing to death the best part of the whole party again?” Zayn asked Liam as they neared the top of the hill.

“You’ll see,” Liam replied cheerfully, a little bit of spring in his step that made Zayn smile a little to himself.

As they reached the top of the hill, Zayn blinked. “Holy shit.”

The bonfire looked more like a sacrificial pyre than anything else, what with the gigantic mass of wood and scraps on it. Already half of it was ablaze, crackling and breaking the coldness around it.

“Never a minute late to the fire, are you, lads?” one of the men chuckled, and Zayn assumed it was Niall’s uncle.

There were a couple of larger logs set out around the fire as benches, and Zayn quietly followed Liam to one of them and took a seat. Already he was feeling the warming relief of the bonfire from the cold night, and he took his hands out of his pockets and leaned them in towards the flames.

“Gorgeous night for this,” Harry remarked, looking nearly straight up into the air, and everyone copied him, staring up at the clear night chock-full of stars, mumbling agreements.

Gradually, other people came up the hill from the barn and took their seats, all laughing and talking and such. Zayn was perfectly content to sit back and enjoy watching everyone around him be full of good cheer. If he and Louis and Paul were in town more often, he figured it would be kinda like this. They’d never gotten really acclimated with the town they were in, but Zayn could picture this easily enough. Every time he started picturing it, though, the three boys he’d met here in town were always there, too. Liam, Niall, Harry. It seemed that they’d slipped into Zayn’s everyday life, somehow. Huh.

“Wassail, anyone?”

“We’ll take some, Auntie,” Niall called out to the woman carrying a large crockpot. “Need any help carryin’ that?”

“Not at all, you sit down, young man,” the woman chastised Niall mock-sternly as he rose to his feet. “I suppose you’ll be wanting some of this batch, it’s spiked.”

Zayn laughed a little along with the others at the way Niall’s face lit up.

“Okay, I can see how this is the best part of the whole party,” Zayn admitted to Liam once they all had Styrofoam cups full of steaming wassail in their hands.

Liam blew a little bit on his drink, fanning out the steam curling up from it. “Told you. Trust me, it gets better once someone starts the singing.”

Zayn chuckled a little bit, and Liam tried not to choke on his mouthful of wassail while laughing along. “You certainly do like singing, don’t you?”

“’Course I do,” Liam said proudly, eyes sparkling. “I dunno what I’d do if I couldn’t sing.”

“So that’s your type, then. Someone who sings.”

Liam groaned goodnaturedly. “Not the types again.”

Zayn grinned and winked, taking a sip of his wassail in a dignified silence.

 _“Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la…_ ”

Zayn laughed aloud at the sound of a man’s booming voice starting the song, sitting back for a little bit as everyone else around him started to join in.

_“’Tis the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la…”_

Liam chimed in, nudging Zayn playfully in the side with his elbow. As if cuing him to join in. “ _Don we now our gay apparel, fa-la-la, fa-la-la, la-la-la…_ ”

Zayn grinned and sighed dramatically, joining in. “ _Troll the ancient yuletide carol, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la…_ ”

They went through a couple more verses, then moved on to others like “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” and “Jingle Bells” until it seemed the most natural thing in the world to be belting Christmas carols at the top of their lungs. It surprised Zayn a lot; this didn’t seem like something he would enjoy at all, and yet here he was, enjoying it to no end. Maybe it was the alcohol.

He was a little more surprised when Liam started the next song. “ _O, holy night, the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of the dear Savior’s birth…_ ”

No one joined in, and Liam didn’t seem to mind, continuing on alone. Holy shit. Zayn blinked, hanging on every note coming out of his mouth. Damn, could Liam Payne sing. Zayn sat there, finally having every excuse to really stare. The light of the fire seemed to make Liam glow even more than he already did. His eyes were shining, and everything about him seemed relaxed and in his element. Zayn couldn’t help feeling a sense of awe. If singing made him this confident and surreal, it was no wonder why Liam loved singing so much.

When he finished the song, everyone sat there in silence for just a moment, and then people were all clapping and shouting compliments, and Niall had flung his arm over his shoulder and was shaking him, and Liam was blushing like nobody’s business and grinning so beautifully and Zayn would be damned if he didn’t have the most hopeless crush on this boy—

_“Help, someone, we need help!”_

Everyone paused and turned to where the shout had come from.

At the back door of the barn, there was a young man looking up the hill at them all, catching his breath as if he’d run forever.

“What’s the matter, son?” someone called down.

Zayn could see the fear on the man’s face from where he was sitting. “It’s happened again. Smith is dead.”

The air was silent save the crackling of the bonfire. Zayn felt his heart drop all the way into his shoes.

 _Another killing_.

Zayn stood up quickly as the men around the fire who were on the police force headed quickly towards the barn. The other men were telling everyone else not to panic, but there were nervous mutterings all around the fire, and quite a few of the women were starting to cry.

“Did he say Smith? Old man Smith is dead?” Harry asked, looking decidedly everywhere but at Liam.

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Niall said, reluctantly turning to look at Liam.

Zayn glanced down at Liam half-heartedly, almost scared. The happiness of just a few moments ago was completely gone, and he was staring blankly into the fire, his face pale.

“Come on, mate, let’s get you home,” Harry started, hooking a hand around Liam’s elbow and gently pulling him to his feet. “Probably best not to hang around here. Party’s over.”

Liam went along without any protest. From the looks of it, Zayn judged that Liam probably didn’t have anything in him to fight at the moment, anyways.

 _Liam used to date the Smith girl a couple years back_. Zayn thought back to the truck ride with Harry, remembered passing the Smith house, seeing a man at the door watching the dog. The small, cordial smile and nod of the head. He gulped. No matter how much death he was normally surrounded by in his job, it still stung every time. He’d seen that man alive, and now he was dead. Shit, the man had died _on his watch_.

“Malik.”

Zayn turned and blinked at Niall. The Irishman looked serious.

“I take it you’re gonna head up and look at the crime scene a little?”

Zayn paused, not sure what to tell him, but then gave up and decided the truth was best, anyways, and nodded.

“Look,” Niall started quietly, taking a step closer to Zayn. “I know it isn’t my place to say this, I mean, I barely know you, but if my gut is right, I don’t think you’re a freelance writer. I think you know what’s going on up here, with all these deaths.”

The look in Niall’s eyes was completely solemn. Fuck, fuck _fuck_. This was not the plan. Zayn was going to come into town undercover, kill the thing, and leave without anyone being the wiser. And here someone was, onto him.

Zayn took a deep breath in and out. “Niall…I didn’t want to have to say anything to anyone…”

“You told me you weren’t a cop. So what are you?”

“You can’t talk about this with the other guys.”

“I don’t plan on it. You can trust me,” Niall said, folding his arms, looking the slightest bit worried.

Zayn took a deep breath in and out. “When there are reports of suspicious activity that don’t seem to line up with anything…natural…I normally come to investigate. Some stuff…some stuff just doesn’t stay dead. And It’s my job to make sure it does.”

“So you’re some sort of supernatural FBI agent?”

“Not exactly. I make it just as dead as it’s supposed to be.”

“So a supernatural assassin. Hunter. Thingy.”

The corner of Zayn’s mouth twitched. “More or less.”

Niall shifted his weight, looking a little nervous. “So all that ghost shit I was talking up the other day…that’s a real thing?”

Zayn sighed. “Unfortunately, it looks like it is, in this case.”

“Jesus.” Niall shuddered. “Stuff like that gives me the absolute willies.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Zayn nodded. “To help everyone else sleep better at night.”

“Do you know what it is, yet?”

Zayn shrugged. “Thinking probably a ghost. I’ll need to get a closer look, but not when there are a bunch of cops around. I just want to investigate some of the carnage.”

Niall made a face. “Well, if you need a ride out there, I can give you one, if you rode here with Liam.”

“I did, actually. That’d be great.”

“Poor guy. Did you know he used to date Smith’s daughter a while back?”

Zayn nodded. “Harry told me the other day.”

Niall shuddered. “Awful. Death doesn’t end for the Smith family, does it. Well, walk with me, I’ll just let my folks know I’m heading out.”

When they arrived at the Smith property, the walls of the house flickered in the flashing police lights. There were about five different police cruisers out closer to the lake, so Niall drove farther out before shutting his car off and stepping out.

“Horan,” one of the policemen said to Niall as Zayn got out of the car. “What’re you doing out here?”

“We wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help,” Niall replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets to keep them warm. “Heard about it at the party.”

“Yes, bloody awful time of year for another one to turn up, especially Smith. He was a good guy,” the officer sighed. “We might need some help stringing the caution tape, if you’ll follow me.”

Zayn followed Niall silently through the maze of police cars to the small crowd of policemen with their flashlights out. He peered through them all towards where the flashlights were pointing, finding the body easily.

It certainly wasn’t pretty. Niall hadn’t been joking at all when he mentioned how mangled the bodies were—the poor man seemed as if he had been dipped in scarlet. There were large holes in the body in the expected places, and Zayn only glanced long enough to see that the marks were similar to other disfigurements he had come across in other ghost killings. The dead man had a look of absolute horror on his face, and Zayn had to turn away, feeling a very uncomfortable shiver twitch down his spine. Guilt clutched at his chest—this man could still have been alive if he’d only done a better job.

Fuck, when he told Paul and Louis about this…

 --

  _“Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME,”_ Paul shouted.

Zayn winced and lifted the phone away from his ear. “I know, I know. Believe me when I say that you don’t regret it as much as I do. I saw the guy alive not a full day before he died.”

Zayn had waited until the day after the death to call and touch base, and even then, he’d dawdled until the evening. The sun had already set, and Zayn was making his way up to Lake Smith in his car as he spoke.

 _“Did you really go to some fucking Christmas party while you were on duty?”_ Louis asked, sounding disbelieving, and if Paul’s shouting didn’t make Zayn feel like shit, Louis’ disappointment certainly did the trick.

“Look, nearly every single other time after something like this makes an appearance, it tends to hang low for quite a few days, at least. I was going to the party to get more information from different people who know more about it than the few I’ve talked to. It wasn’t like I didn’t think everything through before I went, okay? And I feel awful that he’s dead, and trust me, it won’t be happening again. Ever.”

 _“It fucking better not_ ,” Paul growled. _“Our job is to keep people alive, Malik. Not to just kill the thing and walk away unscathed.”_

Zayn sighed, feeling a pang in his chest. “I know. It won’t happen again. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing, though.”

Zayn heard Louis sigh. “ _Well, it’s happened to us all at one point or another. You gonna investigate?_ ”

“Way ahead of you,” Zayn replied, making a turn onto the gravel path and slowing down, not wanting to be too loud or draw too much attention to his presence there. “They didn’t make the body much of a crime scene. They didn’t want to leave it out in the cold, since it’s gonna snow pretty hard in a couple of days. They’ve moved it elsewhere and have all the tape up at the lake and everything, but no one’s investigating that just yet because they’re all focused on the body. So it’s empty up here right now, and I’m going to take a look.”

“ _Got the salt-lined jacket on? Athame? Holy water? Silver cross? Everything you may possibly need to figure out what this is?”_ Paul asked.

“Trust me, I have all of it. And I’ve taken extra precautions to, er…”

 _“Protect the family jewels?”_ Louis asked slyly.

“Shut up,” Zayn muttered, feeling his face grow hot.

Paul and Louis both chuckled.

 _“Better you than me, mate,”_ Louis remarked. _“I’ve heard castration is worse than childbirth_.”

“Thanks for the reassurance, mate,” Zayn grumbled, cutting the engine. “If you don’t hear back from me, call the nearest hospital.”

And with that, he hung up the phone and stepped out of the car.

Sometimes he really, really wished that coming to the haunted places at night wasn’t a necessity. Why couldn’t he just visit them in the daytime, kill the dead things then? Why did it always have to be in the darkest parts of the evening, when everything became ten thousand times more suspicious and terrifying?

He left the door unlocked and the key in the ignition in case he needed a quick getaway, then made his way slowly towards the lake. Even from where he was, he could see the hole the thing had blown into the ice of the lake a few days back. The top of it had frozen over again, but the ice wasn’t nearly as thick as it was over the rest of the lake. Zayn reckoned he could probably walk on top of the lake surface at this point, if he needed to.

The second he stepped foot onto the dock, he saw the teal light slowly pulse to life in the middle of the lake again. Boy, whatever this was certainly didn’t mess around. Three days in a row they were daring to show themselves.

Zayn took deep, calming breaths as the light slowly grew, closer and closer, and the eerie humming started once more. There was a bit of mist swirling near the edges of the lake, and it was slowly moving in towards the center where the glow was becoming all the brighter. Zayn winced and gripped the hilt of his athame as a knee-jerk reaction when the thin patch of ice broke open again, and the mist clouded around the opening all the thicker. It was coming.

Zayn yanked the athame out of its sheath and pointed it straight ahead as a figure came hurtling at him out of the mist. It stopped about five feet away from Zayn, as if recoiling, and the mist slowly dissipated, giving Zayn a better look.

The figure was a girl, a girl who didn’t look terribly younger than Zayn, himself. Zayn blinked. She was startlingly beautiful, with brown eyes and full lips and long, beautiful brown hair. Zayn started to make note of what she wore, remembering that sometimes that would give him a clue as to who she was. She looked like she’d stepped away from a summer concert, barefoot in jean shorts and a crop top and a hippie headband. From the seventies, maybe?

She did not look happy at all.

“Why can’t I touch you?” she hissed, looking very murderous.

Zayn ignored the question, still getting a good look at her. “So you’re the one everyone’s making a fuss about.”

“You are not the one I am looking for,” she spat out impatiently. “You’re not even one of them.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow, a little confused. “I am ‘one of them’, though. I’m a hunter.”

She scoffed. “Hunter? What is a hunter?”

Zayn frowned; maybe he was getting a little ahead of himself. “Who are you?”

She tried lunging at him again, and Zayn folded his arms in and shoved her off with her own momentum. She fell back, recoiling and screeching.

“Why do you hurt to touch?” she whined in frustration.

“Didn’t answer my question,” Zayn replied, again pointing his knife at her. “Who are you?”

She didn’t say anything for a while, then finally pursed her lips.

“My name is Sophia.”

“Sophia. Nice to meet you. How old are you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Nearly eighteen.”

Eye-rolling. Yeah, she was a teenager. “May I ask you how you died?”

Her face hardened, and she glared at him. “I’m here because of him.”

“Who?” Zayn asked, frowning.

She growled in frustration and darted towards him again, hesitantly, stopping a couple feet away from the dock. He kept the point of his knife trained on her.

“Do you think your little knife scares me?” she taunted, smirking. “There have been many men who have come up here with guns, and they have all ended up the same.”

“This isn’t an ordinary knife,” Zayn replied, thinking things over. “You’re dead because of who?”

“ _Him_ ,” Sophia ground out, nostrils flaring. “And you aren’t one of them. I should have killed you by now.”

“What do you mean, ‘one of them’?”

She made for the dock, and Zayn slashed his knife out, catching the side of her arm, and she screamed, stumbling back, looking shocked.

“Why does your knife work?” she breathed.

Zayn smiled coldly. “Because I’m here to kill you.”

Sophia only looked shocked for a couple of seconds, and then the murder was back on her face.

“Oh, you messed with the wrong girl.”

Zayn started just a little when she threw her arms out to the sides and all along the surface of the lake, right where her arms flung out, the ice began to crack and break. She raised her arms above her head, and various chunks and shards of ice flew up into the air along with the water. Zayn slowly backed away towards the shore. Shit, this could possibly be a little more than he was prepared to deal with at the moment. Flying bits of frozen lake weren’t exactly something his ghost-killing defense tactics had prepared him for.

Sophia threw her arms forward towards Zayn, and all of the ice came racing towards him. Fuck. Zayn turned and started running for it, ducking just a bit to avoid the larger chunks of ice and shielding his head and neck. His entire back half was pelted with freezing water and ice, and he stumbled and fell off of the dock and about six feet from the shore.

Quickly, he scrambled over to face the lake, and Sophia was right there at the lake’s edge, hissing. He tried to catch his breath, waiting for her to make her move, but she didn’t come any farther.

It suddenly dawned on him. “You can’t leave this lake, can you?”

She screamed in frustration, and he laughed a little bit. But she lifted her arms again, and more ice broke off from the lake surface and started towards him.

Shit. Well, time to go.

He scrambled to his feet and sprinted towards his car, narrowly avoiding the raining chunks of ice and water she was aiming at him. She screeched in frustration and he heard more ice breaking from the surface again. He threw himself at his car door and yanked it open, starting the ignition as fast as possible, jumping a little when chunks of ice started hitting his car.

“ _Shit_ ,” he shouted in alarm as a particularly large chunk of ice hit his windshield on the passenger side and lodged itself there, making a giant crater full of cracks in the glass. He turned his car as quickly as possible and gunned it out of there, not caring who heard him going now. It was too late for anyone to stop him being there.

He sighed, looking at his windshield on the passenger side. Well, looked like he’d be going to see Niall again. And this time, Liam wouldn’t be the one paying for the replacement. Louis was going to be murderous, himself.

Speaking of Louis…he should probably have that video chat with him when he got back to the hotel. That sounded like a plan. Louis should know that the thing castrating all the men was a seventeen-year-old flower child that could also throw ice chunks at people.

It didn’t take long for him to park the car outside the hotel and pull his phone out, video-calling Louis right then. Louis should probably know the extent of the damage as soon as possible.

Louis’ face popped up on Zayn’s screen fairly quickly. _“Zayn, you okay?”_

Zayn shrugged. “I’ll be okay. Your, um, car, however…”

Zayn flipped the screen and aimed the camera at the windshield, and Louis groaned.

_“Shit, Malik, the fuck happened to my baby?!”_

“Sabrina the teenage ghost happened,” Zayn quipped.

_“Sabrina was a teenage witch, genius.”_

“Oh. Right. Well, Sophia the ghost in the lake did that.”

Louis frowned. _“What, she threw the lake at you?”_

“Yes! That’s literally exactly what happened!” Zayn exclaimed, getting out of the car. “She has control of the surroundings she’s in. She can summon the lake at will. All she did was throw out her arms and the ice all broke and she threw it all at me.”

 _“Holy shit_.”

“I know,” Zayn grumbled. “And she didn’t tell me how she died. She just said ‘I’m here because of him’.”

_“Who’s ‘him’?”_

“Fuck if I know,” Zayn sighed, walking towards the door to the lobby. “She never said, even though I asked.”

 _“This sounds a lot like guilt and revenge to me, Zayn_.”

Zayn sighed. “I know. Which sucks. Because now we have to find out who is attached to her and why and how they can help fix it.”

 _“Should Paul and I come up there and help?_ ”

Zayn pulled open the lobby door. “I just need help with the research right now, is all.”

“Zayn?”

Zayn looked up to see Liam and Harry sitting on one of the couches.

“ _Who’s that?”_

“Oh, hey, lads,” Zayn said, lifting a hand in greeting. Then, to Louis, he said, “that’s the hotel owner’s son and his friend who runs the bakery.”

“You talking to someone, mate?” Harry asked, looking curious.

_“Whoa, who’s that?”_

Zayn chuckled. “C’mere, Louis, let me show you the gang.”

He walked over to Liam and Harry by the couch and raised an eyebrow at Liam, smiling. “Mind if I sit?”

Liam half-smiled. “Sure, I don’t mind.”

Zayn grinned and took a seat next to Liam and got him into the shot. “Lou’, this is Liam Payne. He’s been running the hotel I’m staying in while I’ve been down here.”

Zayn smiled at Liam. “Liam this is—”

“ _I’m Louis, his partner, and I can introduce myself, thanks,”_ Louis remarked.

Liam blinked quite a few times. “Oh, uh…hello. I didn’t realize Zayn had a partner.”

“Just a partner in crime, really. Helps me out with my work,” Zayn clarified, shrugging.

 _“I do most of your work, you incompetent sloth,”_ Louis protested, grinning.

Zayn made a face. “Thanks, mate, that definitely makes me look responsible.”

“He’s a bit sassy,” Harry chuckled quietly, and Zayn turned the camera to face him.

“That’s Harry. He runs his own bakery in town, called Sweet Nothings,” Zayn introduced.

Harry grinned really big and waved at the camera. “Hiiiii.”

Zayn was a little confused when Louis didn’t say anything straight off the bat, and then, “ _Named the place yourself, did you?”_

Zayn and Liam doubled over laughing while Harry grabbed Zayn’s phone from him and said “Heeeey, why does everyone have to make fun of my bakery?”

 _“Because people who want to be taken seriously don’t name their establishments with ridiculous puns, Harold,”_ Louis explained.

“That’s not my name,” Harry replied, but he was grinning at the phone from ear to ear and didn’t seem to mind at all.

Zayn stood. “Well, I’m heading off to hit the sack now, I’ll take this tosser off your hands.”

_“Please, Malik, we all know who the tosser is in this relationship.”_

Zayn chuckled. “If you say so. Night, Harry. Night, Liam.”

“Night,” Harry said, standing and heading towards the door.

“Night, Zayn,” Liam said, smiling just a little bit.

 _“So,”_ Louis said once Zayn had gotten into his room. “ _When were you going to tell me?”_

Zayn blinked. “Tell you what?”

_“That there was a cute boy in this town.”_

Oh. Zayn blushed. “Um. Well.”

_“You weren’t going to mention it, were you? You were going to seduce poor Harry and not tell me, weren’t you?”_

Zayn frowned. “Wait, Harry?”

Louis gave him a significant look, and Zayn groaned. “Shit.”

 _“Knew I could get you to admit it,”_ Louis laughed. _“Not that it was hard to tell, what with you and Liam both making heart eyes at each other on camera, of all things.”_

“We were not,” Zayn protested.

 _“Mmm,_ ” Louis remarked, raising an eyebrow. “ _Think Paul and I are gonna have to come and chaperone the two of you. Plus the baker is definitely mine. I call him. Dibs on Curly._ ”

“Can’t argue with dibs, can I?” Zayn asked, winking.

 _“Go get some sleep, Malik. Paul and I should be up there soon. Need us to bring anything?_ ”

“Probably some wetsuits, if it ends up being that she’s attached to the lake,” Zayn sighed. “I have no idea how this is going to work.”

 _“I’ll talk to Paul about it, okay?_ ”

“’Kay,” Zayn replied, stretching. “I’ll let you know if there’s any more news regarding Sophia.”

There was a loud clinking noise just outside Zayn’s door, and Zayn frowned, hanging up on Louis and throwing the phone onto his bed, walking over to it.

“Hello?”

Zayn opened the door and jumped a little. Liam was there, and Zayn’s keys were on the floor just underneath Liam’s hand.

“Oh, I must’ve dropped my keys earlier,” Zayn chuckled, bending down and picking them up.

Liam still didn’t say a word, and Zayn looked at him in concern.

He was shocked to see tears pooling in the corners of Liam’s eyes.

“Liam? What’s wrong?” Zayn asked urgently.

Liam looked hurt, lost, and confused all at once.

“Did…did you say Sophia?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe.
> 
> Thanks for sticking around! Part three should be up in another couple of weeks...or maybe even sooner. Who knows?
> 
> PLEASE. If you have read this, COMMENT. I need to know what people think of this so I can keep it in mind while I continue writing.
> 
> Much love :)


	3. Figuring Out The Mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just start by apologizing. I am so so sorry that it has been this long since I have updated. I took a small break when Zayn left, and then my uncle passed away, and then I needed to finish my first year at uni, but after that I had no excuse for not continuing. I cannot believe I have let this story go so long unfinished. If you are still reading this story, I am really really glad that you have stuck around and had faith in me. (Sarah, forgive me one thousand billion times over.)
> 
> Here is the long awaited third installment. I really hope you like it, and that you can forgive me.
> 
> Enjoy.

“Sophia?” Zayn echoed Liam weakly, feeling oddly guilty.

Why did _he_ feel guilty? Liam was the one who had apparently listened at the door.

Liam sighed deeply, shaking his head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to listen in or anything, you were probably talking about someone else, anyways. I just…”

He shrugged, head hanging. “I just used to know a Sophia, is all.”

Zayn felt his heart give a little leap. “Oh. Sorry for the confusion, mate. I mean, the Sophia you know is probably a lot nicer than the one I’ve met.”

“Yeah, well,” Liam’s smile looked forced. “I mean, she was pretty nice to me. She’s, uh…well, I mean, I like to think she’s…in a better place, now.”

Zayn felt his heart start to beat faster, despite his concern. “Oh, is she…?”

Liam looked miserable. “She passed away a couple years ago.”

Zayn’s pity won out over his excitement. “Shit, I’m sorry I brought it up—”

“No, no, it’s…it’s actually fine,” Liam interrupted, sounding a little surprised by himself. “I mean…I haven’t liked talking about it before or anything…”

“You don’t have to, don’t worry about it,” Zayn said firmly.

In his head, Zayn’s logic exploded. _Why did you do that? You just know he knows something about her. You should be grilling him about it so you can get to the bottom of it all. Why did you let that opportunity pass you by?_

Glancing at Liam’s face again was answer enough. Liam. Liam was why. Because of how miserable he looked at the mere mention of the girl’s name. Liam must have really, really known her. Suddenly it really sunk in why Zayn had been taught to avoid befriending anyone while on an assignment like the plague. He would suffer years on this case if it meant Liam could keep being comfortable.

“No, I…I actually think I want to talk about it,” Liam insisted, astonished.

Zayn raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Uh…are you…sure? If it makes you feel uncomfortable…”

“Actually, I think you’re probably the only person who wouldn’t make me feel uncomfortable. I mean…”

Liam dropped his gaze again. “Everyone else I could talk to about it was here to witness it. They’ve been involved, kind of. They’ve got opinions on it all. You…you’d listen.”

Liam looked up quickly. “But, I mean, only if you’re willing to—”

“Of course, Liam,” Zayn reassured him gently. “I’d be honored. It’s no good, keeping things bottled up.”

Finally, Liam’s returning smile wasn’t quite so sad.

“Maybe…maybe not right this very second, though. Sort of took me by surprise,” he laughed weakly.

“Sure, yeah, whenever you’re ready I’ll listen.”

“Thanks,” Liam murmured.

That was probably the shittiest smile Zayn had ever seen on Liam’s face, and before he knew it, Zayn was opening his arms and slowly enveloping Liam in a hug. Liam stiffened slightly and Zayn started panicking, _shit, fuck, bad idea_ , but then Liam softened into the hug, weaving his own arms around Zayn’s waist.

Zayn couldn’t remember feeling this protective of anyone before. I mean, he would defend Paul and Louis with his whole life, but…that felt different than this, hugging Liam Payne, the hotel owner’s son. A good kind of different, though. Benign, happy. Loving?

Yeah, okay, he was going to pretend that word had never occurred to him. Not yet.

And so pushed the thoughts aside and held Liam tighter.

\--

Liam actually wanted to talk to Zayn about something he didn’t like discussing with anyone else. All through the next morning as he got ready, Zayn wondered about that. What could it possibly be, if he couldn’t feel confortable talking to his closest friends about it? How was that going to work? When would we open up?

He shouldn’t be hinging all of his efforts on Liam’s story, he decided. If Liam decided that he would rather not say anything to Zayn about it, after all, then Zayn needed a game plan from there. Louis and Paul would be in town within the next day or two, depending on when they decided to head up, and Paul would have all of the multiple tools they might need to get the job done.

Perhaps they’d bring some sort of manual on how to avoid hurtling boulders of ice.

Zayn was a little surprised when there was a knock on his door as he stepped out of the shower. He quickly yanked a pair of boxers on and ruffled his hair viciously, calling “coming!” as he made his way to the door.

Both Zayn and Liam looked surprised to see each other when Zayn opened the door, and Zayn couldn’t tell if he was blushing as badly as Liam. It certainly felt like it. Maybe more. God, it felt like his skin had caught on fire. He kinda felt like sinking into a puddle on the floor.

“Oh, er, sorry, I-I was just going to…” Liam trailed off, gulping, and Zayn found himself holding his breath while Liam’s gaze raked over him from head to toe. Jesus Christ.

He should play this off. He could do it, right? He was smooth, cool, confident. He choked down a scoff; yeah, right. Here he was, practically naked in front of the kid he had a crush on.

“Uh, sorry, I just…I was just showering,” Zayn stammered, laughing a little. Smooth, cool, and confident. Ha. Way to go, Malik.

“Right, of-of course, I should’ve…” Liam practically interrupted, and then he burst out in mortified laughter, and Zayn felt a wave of relief wash over him, and he laughed along.

“Sorry, I just stopped by to fetch you for breakfast,” Liam chuckled, clapping a hand to his forehead.

“Just give me a minute to grab some clothes, yeah?” Zayn laughed, leaving the door open as he walked back into the room and quickly pulled on jeans and a sweater.

“Sleep okay?” Zayn asked while they walked across the street and towards Sweet Nothings.

Liam shrugged. “Meh. I’ve slept better.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Zayn apologized, putting his hands in his pockets and puffing out a sigh that turned into a cloud in the cold air. “I didn’t sleep well, either. Stayed up half the night worrying about my car.”

Liam frowned. “Your car?”

“I’ve got to get it into Niall’s place again.”

“ _Again?_ ”

Zayn chuckled wanly. “Probably have to replace the whole windshield.”

Liam whistled. “Jesus, what happened?”

“Giant piece of ice fell on it and broke a giant hole.”

“How?!”

Zayn grinned, avoiding looking at Liam, and shrugged. “I dunno man, felt like it came out of friggin’ nowhere.”

Liam shook his head. “Sheesh. You’re gonna make Niall a rich man.”

Zayn laughed and pulled the door to the bakery open, beckoning Liam to go inside first. “Apparently that’s the plan.”

Niall was thrilled when Zayn admitted he needed to bring the car back in, and when Liam insisted that Niall ought not to be so enthusiastic, Niall dialed it down and pretended to be sympathetic so poorly that Liam and Zayn both rolled their eyes in mock disgust and made sarcastic, not-too-upset jokes.

“More coffee, lads?” Harry asked cheerily, not even waiting for an answer and picking up Niall’s mug to refill. “Ready for tonight?”

Zayn raised an eyebrow, turning to Liam. “What’s tonight?”

Liam blinked, realization dawning. “Oh, right, that’s tonight!”

“ _What_ ’s tonight?”

“Cookies and Claus at the firehouse,” Niall explained. “The town makes and sells cookies for everyone and brings gifts and food to give to the homeless in town, and Santa is there for the kids to meet.”

“I get to play Santa this year,” Harry said proudly, and Liam and Niall dissolved into laughter.

Zayn joined in, chuckling. “ _You_ play Santa? What about someone who’s actually old? Or one of the firemen?”

“Guy who used to play him moved to North Carolina with his kids because he’s getting up there in years, and I volunteered since the firemen will be busy handing out the donations. It’s fun!” Harry insisted, glaring playfully at his two friends, who were still bent over the table hooting with laughter.

“Somehow I’m not even surprised,” Zayn laughed, shrugging apologetically at Harry’s beseeching “et tu Brute” look.

“The kids’ll love him, I’m sure. All the kids love Harry,” Niall said, calming himself down but still grinning like an idiot.

“But he has to wear a fat suit,” Liam snorted, and then the table dissolved into more laughter, leaving Harry protesting “heeeeey” and the rest of the bakery glancing curiously in their direction.

“You’ll be there, won’t you, Malik?” Harry asked.

Zayn blinked. “Do you guys want me there—?”

Niall scoffed. “Please, mate. You’re one of us now. ‘Course we want you there.”

“You can help us hand out the cookies!” Liam said, smiling sweetly at Zayn, and hell, how could he say no to that face.

“Sure, yeah, I’ll be there.”

\--

_“Remind me where it is that you’ll be again?”_ Louis asked, nonplussed.

Zayn sighed, smiling. “Cookies and Claus. I know, it sounds cheesy. It’s a homeless drive for the holidays, with free gifts and cookies and Santa and shit.”

_“And remind me why the fuck you’re going to something that sounds like it jumped out of a shitty Hallmark movie.”_

“Um…”

_“Angel Boy invited you, didn’t he.”_

“ _Liam_ didn’t invite me, it was all of them,” Zayn corrected, feeling the tiniest bit protective.

_“Shouldn’t you be, oh, I don’t know, killing a ghost or something?_ ”

“Louis, how am I supposed to kill something that can throw icebergs at me to keep me away?” Zayn sighed, rubbing his temple. “Besides, no one is going to be up at the lake tonight, not since Smith just died. I stole some of the police tape and marked off the road up to the Smith property, just in case. Most of the people in town are going to be helping at this homeless drive, anyways. I can’t do anything about that ghost until you and Paul show up.”

_“Don’t worry, we’re already well on our way up there.”_

“Already?”

_“Yes! You need our help, Malik, we don’t just let one of our own struggle on a difficult case!”_

Zayn sighed again. “Right. I know. I am glad you’re coming up, I kinda miss you, mate.”

_“Sounds more like you and Angel Boy are plenty busy without me up there. Did he really walk in on you almost naked this morning?”_

“I take it back, I don’t miss you at all.”

_“Keep telling yourself that, Malik_.”

Zayn could hear Louis grinning.

_“Just remember I called dibs on Curly._ ”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, he’s all yours if he can stand to be around you.”

Louis gasped. _“Oof, you wound me. Your insults have cut me to the core, ouch, I’m bleeding, oh how will I go on, I suppose I need a kiss of life from Angel Boy_ —”

“Goodbye, Louis,” Zayn groaned, smiling, still hearing Louis’ exaggerated sarcasm as he hung up.

There was a knock on Zayn’s door, then a tentative, “um…Zayn?”

Zayn was almost disgusted by the giant grin that spread on his face. Almost.

“Come in. Don’t worry, I’m clothed this time,” Zayn called back.

Liam chuckled sheepishly and opened the door. Zayn blinked.

“That is a very…interesting sweater,” he said carefully.

Liam rolled his eyes, laughing. “It’s ugly, that’s the whole point. Volunteers wear ugly Christmas sweaters as tradition.”

He lifted a bundle towards Zayn, a teasing grin on his face, and Zayn suddenly realized what it was. “Oh, no. No. I’m not wearing one.”

“Actually, yes, you are. I have one right here for you.”

“I won’t wear it.”

“You will.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Yes, you will!”

“Not.”

“Oh, come on, Zaynie, it’s just a sweater!”

Zayn tried not to be satisfied with the nickname. “An itchy, ugly sweater.”

Liam gasped loudly, and briefly Zayn thought that Louis should really meet Liam when he got here, what with their fake wounded-ness act. “Take it back.”

Zayn grinned. “What if I don’t?”

“I’ll wrestle you into it, you wanker.”

“I’d like to see you t—no, Liam, wait!”

Zayn dissolved into laughter as Liam lunged towards him, sweater open, tackling him down onto the bed. For five minutes there was a flurry of hands and elbows and a couple of knees and curses and laughs and insults, and then Liam was straddling Zayn looking very pleased with himself, and Zayn was glaring up at him, trapped in the Horrible Sweater.

“You’re a menace,” Zayn grumbled.

“Please, I’m a steward of Christmas spirit,” Liam scoffed airily, climbing off of Zayn and offering him a hand up.

Zayn struggled, pushing his arms into the proper armholes, and took Liam’s hand up, sighing.

“Come, see? You look festive!”

Liam directed Zayn into the bathroom and pointed at the mirror proudly.

Zayn raised a skeptical eyebrow at his reflection. “I look stupid.”

“You do not!” Liam pouted. “Do I look stupid in mine?”

No. In fact, Liam looked fucking adorable in his tacky blue sweater covered in dancing cartoon snowmen. Zayn tried not to smile, but couldn’t help it. “Nah, you’re fine. It’s just me that looks like an imbecile.”

“Please, Zayn. You could make garbage bags look good.”

“You’ve got a little too much faith in me,” Zayn teased, smirking, and Liam blushed but continued to look adamant until Zayn shrugged and admitted he had looked worse.

“We should head out, we can start setting up tables and stuff for the donations and the cookies,” Liam suggested, grabbing the sleeve of the Horrible Sweater and gently leading him towards the door.

“Are you always this enthusiastic about things?” Zayn asked, amused, letting Liam drag him out of his room.

Liam looked back and winked, and suddenly it felt as if the tables had turned and Zayn was the stammering, blushing one. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

Zayn wouldn’t mind that. Not one bit.

The firehouse was already decorated when Liam and Zayn got there, lined with millions of fairy lights and wreaths and those little chains made of red and green construction paper rings. Inside, there were about twenty people bustling around, moving various bits of furniture and shouting to each other across the room.

“Keep those over in that corner, we’re going to need them in a few minutes once we’ve gotten this out of the way,” a larger black woman was instructing from the middle of the room as Zayn followed Liam inside. She caught sight of them and nodded briskly.

“Thanks for coming out to help, Liam. Who’s this with you, then?”

Liam once again took hold of the sleeve of the Horrible Sweater and pulled Zayn forward just a little bit. “This is my friend, Zayn, and he said he wouldn’t mind helping, as well. Zayn, this is Caroline, she’s in charge of this operation.”

Zayn nodded his hello, and Caroline nodded back.

“We appreciate the help. As you can see, we have plenty to do. We have some last-minute donations over in the corner that we need wrapped, you two would be a great help over there.”

“Sure thing,” Liam replied cheerfully, turning to Zayn and beckoning to the corner. “Come on, then.”

Zayn nodded and trailed behind Liam, feeling a bit like a lost puppy.

“Um, Liam? I’m actually shit at this,” Zayn admitted as Liam grabbed a pair of gloves to wrap and handed Zayn a box with an action figure of Spiderman inside.

Normally during the holiday season, Zayn would make Paul and Louis wrap the gifts he bought for them, accordingly, since the last time he’d wrapped something for someone, Louis had assumed that a student from the elementary school down the street had left a present for him at the door.

Liam raised his eyebrows, a smile beginning to grow on his face. “Oh, so the flawless Zayn Malik has admitted a shortcoming, after all?”

Zayn felt his face heat up, and he nudged Liam’s shoulder with a smirk. “Well, I can’t be perfect at everything.”

Liam laughed just a little and switched with Zayn, giving him the gloves. “Well, then, I’ll give you the gifts that can go in bags. You can manage a little bit of tissue paper, right?”

Zayn made a face. “I think so.”

Liam chuckled. “Do you need help?”

“I’ve got this, I’ve got this,” Zayn insisted, grabbing a bag and some tissue paper and making another face. Liam just winked and got to work.

So. Turned out he didn’t actually know how to manage a little tissue paper.

“I think this is right,” Zayn muttered under his breath before picking the bag up and turning around to put it under the giant Christmas tree where all the gifts were going.

He ended up turning around and stumbling into Caroline on accident. He stammered an apology, reaching down to pick up the dropped gift, and Caroline gave the bag an unimpressed Look.

“Zayn, honey, how about we put you in charge of getting all of the gifts under the tree instead? I think we have enough people in charge of wrapping.”

Zayn blinked a few times, then blushed bright red. “Right. Ah…okay. Sorry. Here.”

He handed the bag to Caroline, which she took with a “you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me” Look. He glanced sheepishly back at Liam, who had apparently witnessed the whole thing and was doubled over himself, his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter.

Well. There went any chances of impressing Liam tonight.

“Nearly ready to go?”

Zayn turned around from putting a couple of new gifts under the tree and came face to face with Father Christmas himself. Zayn blinked a couple of times before recognizing the green of Harry’s eyes.

“Boy, you really go all out, don’t you?” Zayn remarked, pretty impressed. Harry must have the fat suit on underneath everything, and the gloves, boots, trousers, hat, wig, beard, spectacles, and coat made him look almost unrecognizable. He even seemed to have some makeup on his face to make him look older. “What exactly have you done to your face?”

“I was in theater in high school, I know how to utilize stage makeup,” Harry shrugged a little bit. “What do you think?”

Zayn grinned. “I think we gave you too much shit for this. You’re going to be perfect.”

“You haven’t even heard my Santa voice. _Ho-ho-ho, what would you like for Christmas?”_ Harry chuckled, making his voice sound even deeper than usual and merrier, too.

Zayn couldn’t stop himself from snickering just a little.

“You look brilliant, mate,” Liam laughed when Harry and Zayn walked back to the wrapping table. “Is that makeup?”

“Is it that obvious I used makeup?” Harry pouted.

Liam chuckled. “Nah, it’s just ‘cause we know who you are. That’s a really good job you’ve done there, Harry.”

Harry beamed. “Thanks.”

“We’re finished with the wrapping now,” Liam said, turning to Zayn. “Ready to help sell some cookies?”

“So long as I don’t have to wrap them,” Zayn replied drily, and Liam stifled a giggle.

Zayn had never seen this many types of cookies in the same place in his life, not even in the cookie aisle of the supermarket. There were chocolate chips and snickerdoodles, molasses and sugar cookies, peanut butter drops and angel balls, and a ton more that Zayn didn’t know the name of.

“That’s a lot of cookies,” Zayn remarked, noting that there were three tables full of them.

“We have our work cut out for us,” Liam said. “We have to try and sell all of them by the end of the night.”

“Or…?”

“Or Caroline makes us take them all home.”

Zayn grinned. “And that’s a bad thing because…?”

“Because the firehouse and the homeless need the support of the town!” Liam said, pretending to look scandalized. “Where’s your philanthropy?”

“Which kind do you hope you get to take home?”

“The molasses ones,” Liam admitted, and Zayn couldn’t help laughing.

The place was full of people in no time, especially full of children. Even though the table full of cookies and cocoa wasn’t in sight of Santa’s chair, Zayn could still hear Harry’s belly laugh every now and then and the giggles of all the kids in line.

“Pardon me, pardon me!”

Zayn watched as Niall cut his way through the small group of people in front of the cookie tables, laden with three large trays of gingerbread people and endless bags of icing. He scooted a couple of plates out of his way to set everything down, turned to the crowd and cheerfully made an announcement.

“Bonnie McPherson made these gingerbread people that you’re allowed to decorate yourself, if ye like!”

Zayn perked up. “Can I have a go at one, Ni?”

Niall turned to look at Zayn and shrugged. “Knock yerself out. People might join you sooner if they see you doin’ it.”

So Zayn took a seat next to the gingerbread men and took a bag of icing, beginning to work. Doodling was something Zayn loved to do in his free time, and what was better than a doodle that you could eat? If he cut the corner of the icing bag small enough, he could make the designs thinner and easier to see.

Before he knew it, Zayn had decorated about five of them and left them out for everyone else to buy.

“Holy cow, Zayn, did you make this one?” Liam asked, pointing at one of the woman-shaped cookies.

Zayn grinned and shrugged. “Yeah, it was the first one I did, don’t laugh.”

Liam looked shocked. “Laugh? Are you kidding? Look how amazing this is! It looks almost exactly like Mrs. Dun!”

Zayn shrugged. He’d seen a woman walk in the door and he’d tried to draw her onto the cookie, nothing doing. “I like doodling, is all.”

“You’re amazing! You ought to quit the freelance business and try selling some artwork, mate. You’d be rich in no time.”

Zayn couldn’t help the smile and the pleased blush that bloomed on his face. “Can we make these free? I’m going to end up working on all of them and I don’t mind it.”

Liam turned to Niall, who shrugged and went off to ask Caroline. When he returned, he grinned and gave Zayn the thumbs up.

And that was the beginning of a flurry of orders. The woman he had drawn on the cookie came up to the table and had marveled at all of his work, immediately asking if Zayn might be able to make one of her husband and sons, and thus began the crowd at the table. Zayn kept doodling away with the icing while Liam called to the crowd, “while you’re waiting for Zayn to make your cookie, come help yourself to some of these others, and some hot cocoa! All the proceeds go to the firehouse and the homeless.”

It’d been around an hour of Zayn’s work when someone came up to the table and asked, “Draw me like one of your French girls, Malik?”

Without even looking up, Zayn grinned. “Actually, I think you meant French boys, Tomlinson.”

“Right, of course, couldn’t forget that important detail.”

Zayn grinned and looked up to see Louis smirking at him.

“What in god’s name are you wearing?”

Ugh. Zayn groaned. “Volunteers have to wear ugly sweaters, it’s tradition.”

“Are those reindeer on it?”

“Cut it out, Lou’.”

“What’s all this, then?”

Zayn shrugged. “One of Liam’s friends brought in gingerbread people and icing so that everyone else could decorate their own cookies.”

Louis gave him a Look. “And you’re the only one decorating them because…?”

“I guess they liked the cookies I was making and decided they wanted me to ice their cookies for them.”

“Too talented for your own good, Malik,” Louis shook his head, making tut-tut noises playfully.

“Ah, sod off, I’m having fun,” Zayn rolled his eyes, returning to his cookie. “Where’s Paul?”

“He’s waiting at the desk in the hotel to get a room.”

Zayn looked up again. “You do realize the owner of the hotel is here, right? Selling cookies? Paul will be waiting for a while?”

Louis perked up at this, looking behind the tables of cookies eagerly. “Angel Boy is here? Where?”

“Who’s Angel Boy?”

Zayn whipped his head around to see Liam approaching. Liam looked at Louis for a second before recognition swept over his face. Something flickered over Liam’s face briefly before he smiled and said, “Hey, aren’t you the bloke from Zayn’s skype?”

Louis’ grin could only mean trouble. “In the flesh. Liam, right?”

“That’s right,” Liam said, taking the hand Louis had extended and shaking it. “And you’re…Lewis?”

Zayn snorted. Louis hated being called that.

“Louis,” Louis corrected. “Close enough, I suppose.”

“You’re Zayn’s partner.”

“In crime,” Zayn added quickly.

“Basically,” Louis finished. “He and I work together.”

Liam frowned, looking at Louis in confusion. “I didn’t know freelance writers worked together.”

Louis raised his eyebrows and turned to Zayn. “Ah, yes. Freelance writers. That’s what we are. What we do. Freelance…writing.”

Oh god, this was going to turn into a disaster. “We teamed up on a couple of past projects, and we’ve been friends ever since,” Zayn explained quickly, giving Louis a “just-go-with-it” Look.

Liam nodded, still looking a bit baffled. “I see…what brings you here, then?”

“Oh, Zayn and I have this project we’re working on together right now, and I came here to see if I can help get Zayn out of his…writer’s block,” Louis finished awkwardly.

Could Zayn brain himself on this table? He wanted to brain himself on this table right now.

Liam’s eyes narrowed just the teeniest tiniest bit, so little that Zayn wasn’t even sure he was doing it. “Ah. Well. Welcome. Would you like to buy some of the cookies? Money goes towards the firehouse and the homeless.”

“I would if I had money on me at the moment, I think I’ve left my wallet in the car,” Louis said, coming over and plucking up the cookie Zayn was currently working on. “I will, however, steal this one from my dear old freelancing buddy over here.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Zayn growled under his breath.

“Oh, well…enjoy it, then…Louis,” Liam said tentatively, turning and walking off without another word.

Zayn looked at Louis disparagingly. “Are you trying to ruin everything?”

Louis bit off the gingerbread man’s head and started chewing. “And by everything you mean…?”

“My cover. This charity event. My love life. Everything.”

Louis swallowed and took another bite. “Where the hell did you pull freelance writer from, anyways? Your arse?”

“I was good at English in school. Plus I was typing a lot on my computer around everyone.”

Louis shrugged and took another bite.

“Can you pretty pretty please just let me do the talking from now on?”

“All of it?” Louis pouted.

Zayn glared at him. “I’ll let you know what you’re allowed to say, alright?”

“Your wish is my command, captain,” Louis replied, cheerful again, reaching for another cookie. Zayn slapped his hand away.

“Go get Paul, let him know he can get a room later when this thing is over. And bring your wallet back; if you don’t want cookies, I want some, and I think you owe me.”

“ _I_ owe _you_? What about my baby?”

“A consequence of the job, Tommo, not something I owe you.”

Louis harrumphed and stuck his tongue out at Zayn like a five-year-old. “Say, is Curly here, by any chance?”

Zayn grinned. “He’s actually out there playing Santa, if you wanna go see him.”

Louis raised his eyebrows. “Playing Santa? Really? This I have to see.”

“Knock yourself out,” Zayn chuckled as Louis headed off.

By the time Zayn ran out of cookies to ice, most of the other cookies were gone and almost everyone else had left.

“Great work, everyone! Santa was a success, and we gave out all the gifts and sold most of the cookies. You all should be very proud of what you’ve done to help the Philipsburg homeless and fire department,” Caroline announced, and everyone applauded.

“If there are any cookies left, please feel free to take them home with you, otherwise I will, and heaven knows my kids don’t need any more sugar at this time of year,” she remarked to the laughter of all, and then the event was over.

“Oi, Lou’!” Zayn called out.

Louis paused whatever he was saying to Harry and turned around, giving Zayn a Look.

“Do you need something?”

Zayn gestured towards the entrance. “Liam and I are heading back to the hotel, you coming?”

Louis pouted. “But I was just making friends with dear Harold here.”

“That’s not my name,” Harry protested with absolutely no effort, smiling. Zayn couldn’t help but feel amused; so Harry Styles had succumbed to Louis’ charms already.

“I’m sure Harry has to head back the same way, he parked his car over at mine,” Liam chimed in, and Zayn turned and exchanged a knowing grin with him.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Harry said, pulling off all of the items on his head and face and putting them into a backpack he was holding. “C’mon, Lou’, you need to get a room at the hotel, anyways.”

“Well, alright,” Louis conceded. Zayn could tell that Louis was trying to sound dramatic, but there was a note of endearment in his voice that made Zayn wonder if Louis had succumbed to Harry’s charms, as well.

“There you are, Malik,” Zayn heard someone say as they all step out of the firehouse. “Tommo, too, I see.”

Paul was crossing the street towards them, and Zayn couldn’t help a smile. Annoying as Louis could be, it was kinda nice to see the both of them here in town.

“Hey, Paul. How’re things?” Zayn asked.

“Could be better, could be worse,” Paul shrugged, nodding towards Liam. “This your friend from the hotel?”

“Paul, this is Liam Payne. He’s running the hotel currently. Liam, this is Paul, he’s…” Zayn trailed off, not sure what to say.

But Paul interrupted. “I’m the one in charge of their current project.”

“Oh,” Liam said, shaking Paul’s hand. He looked about as friendly as usual. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

“Malik been giving you any trouble?” Paul asked, the faintest hint of a smile pulling at a corner of his mouth.

Liam grinned. “Not at all, he’s actually quite nice to have around. Will you all be staying here a while?”

“Just until the project is finished, then we’ve got to head home,” Paul said, and Zayn felt himself deflate the same way Liam deflated, just a little.

“Oh. Well, I hope this project goes alright for you all. You looking for a room in town tonight?”

“It’d be nice, yes.”

“Follow me, then,” Liam said, leading the way as Louis introduced Harry to Paul.

\--

“So, where exactly is Lake Smith?” Louis asked later when he and Paul stopped by Zayn’s room before retiring for the night.

“It’s at the back of town, farthest point away from the entrance,” Zayn replied, yanking off the Horrible Sweater and holding it between his thumb and forefinger as far away from himself as possible. “I can’t believe I was forced into this thing for an entire night.”

“Builds character, Malik. How many people live up by the lake?” Paul asked.

“I think right now it’s just Mrs. Smith and her dog, and I think even they might not be there. I think Liam said she was leaving town to be with family for the holidays, what with everything,” Zayn replied, dropping the sweater delicately into the trash bin. “The lake is on their property, and they have enough land that they don’t have close-enough neighbors to be near the lake. Character, my arse.”

“So when we go up there, we don’t have a lot of possible bystanders to worry about?” Paul asked, ignoring Zayn’s complaint.

Zayn shrugged. “Nope.”

“Good.”

Louis was frowning thoughtfully at the ceiling, tossing one of Zayn’s pillows up and down. “So she can summon the lake at will, eh?”

“It’s quite a sight to see, even though it’s fuckin’ terrifying,” Zayn sighed, flopping down on his bed next to Louis.

“How are we going to work around that?” Louis asked.

“God only knows,” Paul muttered. “Notin’ the damage she did to the car.”

“What is her source? That’s the real question,” Louis mused, throwing the pillow up and missing the catch, the pillow landing on Zayn’s face.

“God help us if it’s the water.”

Zayn shuddered and pulled the pillow off of his face and out of Louis’ reach. “God help us if it’s a living person.”

“You’re sure it isn’t her bones?”

Zayn frowned. “I really don’t think so. I mean…I’m sure they pulled her out of the lake when she died, right?”

“You never know,” Paul mused, sounding a little bit more hopeful than before. “Lou’ and I can go grave-digging, bring the supplies and burn any bones we find, just in case.”

“But then why would she be tied to the lake?”

“It’s all we can do right now, I think,” Louis said, snatching the pillow back from Zayn and throwing it again. “And at least if we do that, we can officially cross that off our list.”

“Okay. I would’ve done that first thing if I didn’t feel like the lake held the answer,” Zayn explained. “So when do we do it?”

Paul shook his head. “You aren’t going with us.”

Zayn frowned. “What? Why?”

“Because you are going to get the story out of Liam Payne, the one he hasn’t told you yet,” Paul said. “And we want to make sure that he doesn’t have any reasons to distrust you.”

“Besides the freelance thing,” Louis said, smirking at Zayn. Zayn stole the pillow from Louis in midair and whacked Louis in the face with it.

Paul stood up and stretched a little bit. “Come on, then, Lou’, unless you’re sharing a bed with Malik.”

“We’ll leave that spot open to Angel Boy, I should think,” Louis said, standing up and winking at Zayn.

Zayn groaned and threw the pillow at Louis, who managed to duck out of the way just in time, laughing.

“Wanker,” he muttered at Louis’ retreating back, watching the door click shut behind them.

So. Paul and Louis were going to take care of finding and burning the bones. There were probably a lot of Sophias in the graveyard, even though the town was small, so that could take a while, but they were going to handle it. All Zayn had to do was finish getting information.

Zayn rolled over onto his stomach and reached for his phone, unlocking it and pulling Liam up in Messages.

_Z: Hey, you._

Zayn tried really, really hard not to smile at how quickly Liam responded.

_L: Hiii :)_

Now, how to go about this? After a few drafts of the message, Zayn finally sent something back.

_Z: So that thing you wanted to talk about with me…did you still wanna talk about it sometime?_

A few minutes passed, each one making Zayn drum his fingers just a little bit faster, and then finally he got a reply.

_L: Definitely. Tomorrow sound ok?_

Nothing sounded better.

_Z: sounds great aha :) probably not breakfast…?_

_L: Wanna come to my apartment for lunch? We can make sandwiches._

Zayn bit his lip, trying to make it hurt enough that he stopped smiling. What a sap he was turning out to be.

_Z: that’d be cool! See you tomorrow, then?_

_L: ok! Night :)_

_Z: night :)_

Yeah, Zayn was a sappy idiot. And he was more or less okay with that, probably.

\--

Adding Louis to the mix at breakfast was nothing short of entertainment.

When Liam had come to fetch Zayn for breakfast the next morning, he had asked whether Paul and Louis were going to join them. He’d sounded very polite, almost mechanic, which had confused Zayn just a little as he banged on Louis’ door and then proceeded to have a shouted conversation with his best mate through the door, seeing as Louis wouldn’t open it due to his “freeing sleeping habits”, in his own words. In the end, Louis had emerged (after decently clothing himself) and slung his arms over Zayn and Liam’s shoulders, dragging them along most of the way. Zayn grinned at how bemused Liam had looked.

“Geez, Payno, you bring any more people and we’ll have an army,” Niall remarked, eyeing Louis as he and Zayn slid into the booth across from the other two. “Think I saw you at the drive last night, I’m Niall.”

“I’m Tommo,” Louis introduced himself, shaking Niall’s hand and then clapping Zayn on the shoulder. “I’m Malik’s partner, here.”

“In crime,” Zayn added yet again, rolling his eyes.

“Yes, that,” Louis waved a hand dismissively. “And you must be the Irish one who eats like a bear?”

Zayn winced inwardly, but all Niall did was crack up.

“Sounds about right, yeah,” Niall laughed. “Pretty sure no one’s tried to beat my turnover record.”

“Yeah? I’ll give it a go,” Louis said, a competitive smirk on his face.

Zayn made a “here we go again” face at Liam, who grinned and bit back a laugh.

“Liam and Zayn are finally here, then. Oh, hi, Lou’.”

Zayn looked up at Harry, who was grinning at Louis.

“Curly, how goes the baking world?” Louis asked, grinning back.

“It’s pretty great, actually,” Harry replied, shrugging. “What can I get for you?”

“Whatever Niall’s record is in, but one more.”

Liam snorted, and Zayn couldn’t help a chuckle.

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Are you going for his record?”

Louis scoffed. “Please. What record? I could beat it in my sleep.”

Niall giggled. “Cocky, this one.”

Harry grinned knowingly. “I don’t know, Lou’, it’s a really big record…”

“Just bring me the turnovers, Harold. I’ll prove it,” Louis insisted, and Harry lifted his hands in defense, grinning, and walked away.

Zayn turned and smirked at Louis. “Someone trying to impress the baker?”

“Piss off,” Louis replied airily, and Zayn couldn’t help laughing.

Everyone at the table was a bit surprised, though, when Harry brought out a giant tray piled high with turnovers and set it down in front of Louis.

“So I brought out two extra, one for Zayn and one for Liam. The rest are all yours, though, Louis,” Harry said.

Even Louis looked a little unsure. “Niall, where did you put all of these when you made the record?”

“Secret compartment in my back, just slid them out,” Niall grinned, leaning his elbows on the table. “This I gotta watch.”

Louis got to around six turnovers in before groaning and laying his cheek on the table. “I give up. Niall, you are a tank.”

“What, not going to keep trying to impress Harry?” Zayn asked.

Louis didn’t even try to look wounded. “I think I may throw up. There isn’t a human stomach that can hold this much turnover.”

“We’ll just get out of your way, then,” Zayn said, getting out of his seat and grinning at Liam, who looked highly amused by the situation, as well. Louis only groaned and flung his arm dramatically over his face.

“Fine, leave me here to die. Just don’t let Curly see me like this.”

“Making progress, Lou’?”

Zayn and Liam made a speedy escape as Harry came up to the table, waiting until they were outside to burst out laughing.

\--

“He’s an idiot,” Zayn chuckled a couple hours later on when he and Liam were in Liam’s apartment. “An absolute idiot.”

Harry had brought a very pale Louis back to the hotel, saying that he had thrown up on the table only a few moments after Zayn and Liam had left, but that it was all right, and that it hadn’t been too hard to clean up, and that Louis probably needed some rest and some water. Louis looked bored, but Zayn knew him better than that. Louis was mortified.

“A bit of a class clown, that one,” Liam said, smiling as he continued to spread mayonnaise on one of the sandwich halves.

“Quite the showoff.”

“Must’ve driven his teachers crazy.”

“Believe me, he did.”

Liam laughed and folded the sandwich together, slicing it in half.

“Sure you don’t need any help?” Zayn asked, leaning his elbows on the counter and watching Liam put the sandwich on a plate.

Liam made a face. “Think I can’t make a simple sandwich?”

Zayn laughed and apologized, taking the plate Liam handed him gratefully.

“Hang on, lemme grab some of the cookies from last night!”

Zayn bit his lip and watched every detail of Liam he possibly could, how he moved, how his clothes clung to him, how everything about him seemed impossibly simple and not simple at all. He blinked; okay, this was getting a bit ridiculous.

“I’ve got milk, too,” Liam said, setting a couple glasses down on the counter. “We’re set.”

“Looks like it,” Zayn said, smiling.

There was a beat of silence, unsure, then Liam said, “we could probably go and sit on the couch and eat there. Better than standing around.”

It wasn’t a couch, Zayn noted as they carried their food over and sat down. It was a loveseat, leaving very little space between them. Not that he minded.

It was quiet for a while as they ate their sandwiches, the only sounds an occasional crunch from a cookie or sip from a glass. Even when they were more or less done, it was quiet between them. Zayn watched Liam taking great care in dunking a cookie into his milk, too much care.

“Wanna know something most people don’t know?”

Liam looked up, almost grateful. “Sure, yeah.”

“I don’t really have any family left.”

Zayn had no idea why he was telling Liam this. He didn’t like talking about it at all.

Liam frowned. “None?”

Zayn nodded a little bit, looking down at his glass. “Not sure where my dad is. Probably went back overseas or something. I haven’t seen him since I was four, so I don’t really count him.”

“Zayn, I’m so sorry,” Liam said, setting his glass down on the coffee table.

Zayn shrugged. “Meh. Something dads do sometimes, I guess. Shitty, but it happens.”

He half-smiled when he felt Liam put a hand on his shoulder.

“The rest of my family died in an accident.”

“Car wreck?”

“No,” Zayn shook his head. “House caught fire when I was spending the night at a friend’s house. Mum and my sisters couldn’t make it out. No one ever found out how the fire started.”  
                  That wasn’t entirely true. He had been with Louis at the time, tracking a demon together, and had lost the trail until they had given up and came back to Zayn’s house to drop him off and saw his house ablaze. It had taken every single bit of strength in Louis’ body to haul Zayn out of the house when he had tried to break in and find his family, and if he hadn’t succeeded, the house would have caved in on the both of them. They’d caught the demon who had done it and killed it thoroughly, but Zayn could still feel how the act itself hadn’t been enough.

“Oh my god, Zayn.”

Zayn gulped. “Yeah.”

“I’m…god, Zayn, I’m so sorry.”

The sympathy on Liam’s face was almost unbearable. “Loss happens. And it sucks. But I definitely get it, yeah?”

Liam nodded, solemn, before looking down at his hands and fiddling his fingers and taking a couple breaths.

“I think she may have been the most beautiful girl in the entire world.”

Zayn didn’t have to ask whom Liam was talking about.

“We’d lived here pretty much our whole lives, but she got to go to private school at McGee about a half hour away from here until junior high, so I didn’t really get to know her until we were in seventh grade. I wasn’t really the coolest kid, but she didn’t care.”

Liam looked up at Zayn, unsure of whether or not to continue, but Zayn nodded.

“When we were freshmen I brought her with me to a dance, and then somehow after that we were a couple. I didn’t really mind. People typically say the person they date is their best friend, right? So I figured, well, she was my best friend. And I absolutely loved her as much as someone can love anyone, just…not like that. And if we kissed sometimes and it felt weird, I figured it was because of that, but that it was okay, there’d be another girl.”

Liam stared glumly straight forward. “But I think you know how that goes.”

Zayn did.

“But we were seniors before I put all of that together. And by then, everyone knew we were a couple. Harry and Niall used to joke that we were the school’s Power Couple, that one that would never break up. And she thought so, too, and I realized I fucked up. As soon as I really knew what was going on, I told her.”

Liam’s jaw tightened just a little. “It went…poorly. I tried to make it clear that I loved her, just not the way everyone thought, but she didn’t believe me. She thought…I’d played some big joke on her…”

Liam was pale, and Zayn put a hand on his shoulder carefully.

“You don’t have to keep going if you don’t want.”

“It’s fine, I’m almost done, anyways,” Liam mumbled, breathing deeply in and out. Zayn nodded, letting him have a couple moments.

“She tried to leave the argument a couple times, but I kept her from going, but finally she left and I figured she didn’t want me to follow, wanted time to process. But in the middle of the night my mom shook me awake and asked me if I knew where she was, and I didn’t know, and in the morning they found her floating face-down under the dock on her family’s lake.”

Liam took deliberately calming breaths, knuckles white from clasping his hands too tight.

Zayn had no idea what to do but to scoot just the small bit closer to Liam and pull him into his arms. Liam was stiff, trembling a little bit, and Zayn lifted a hand to the back of Liam’s head and stroked his fingers through Liam’s hair steadily.

“I’m sorry, Li’,” Zayn said softly, and Liam hid his face against Zayn’s shoulder and took more deep, calming breaths, his muscles loosening very slowly.

And as hard as he tried, Zayn couldn’t push away the awful sinking feeling in his chest. The one person in the entire town who was connected to the one ghost in the entire town, and it was Liam Payne. The last person in the world that Zayn wanted involved in this. He hoped to god that whatever guilt Liam was feeling about Sophia wasn’t her source, but he had no idea what else it could be. What did that mean for Liam? How were they going to get Sophia to go away?

What the hell were they going to do?

\--

“Malik.”

Zayn looked up from his laptop as Paul and Louis walked into the lobby, looking completely disheveled and fatigued.

Zayn whistled. “Jesus, what happened to you two?”

“Grave-digging and a fucking psychotic teenage ghost,” Louis said, staring at Zayn in utter exhaustion before flopping heavily onto the couch next to Zayn’s.

Paul sat down next to Louis. “Only three Sophias in the graveyard, thank god. Burned all the bones, every last one.”

Zayn raised an eyebrow. “I take it that it didn’t work.”

“Fucking hilarious,” Louis snapped, sitting up. “She nearly knocked Paul out with a giant ice boulder when we went to check and see if she was gone. I am legitimately surprised that we managed to escape alive.”

“I know, she’s crazy,” Zayn agreed instead of snapping back, and Louis harrumphed and flopped back down.

Paul shook his head. “God help us if she’s attached to that water. We’d have to get a thousand tons of potting soil to soak all of that up, which is absolutely not an option.”

Zayn gulped. “Actually…I think she may be attached to guilt.”

Both Paul and Louis’ heads whipped around at that. _“What?_ ”

Zayn nodded, glum. “And I think it may be Liam’s. Turns out, he and Sophia used to date, and she committed suicide in that lake.”

“Shit,” Louis muttered, rubbing his temples. “ _Shit_.”

Paul sighed. “Someone’s got to let him know.”

Both Paul and Louis looked at Zayn, and he sighed.

“Great, how am I supposed to bring something like that up? ‘ _Hey, Li’, so I’m actually not a freelance writer, I actually hunt down and kill things like ghosts that aren’t supposed to exist’_?”

“What the fuck?”

Zayn whirled around to see Liam standing at the desk, staring at Zayn like he’d never seen him before.

No one said anything for a couple moments, but then Zayn heard Paul sigh.

“Son, we’d like to have a word with you, if you don’t mind.”

It took about two hours to convince Liam that they weren’t either playing a giant prank on him or all completely and utterly insane. Zayn apologized a million times through the whole thing, and slowly Liam’s looks became less reproachful towards Zayn.

“Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place?” Liam asked Zayn at last, sounding a bit miffed.

Zayn looked down at his lap. “People don’t like to have anything to do with us once we’ve told them the truth, either because they think we’re lunatics or they think we’re a bad omen. It isn’t that I didn’t want to tell you, Li’. Promise. Plus, if I wasn’t a hunter, I would be a freelance writer, so I tried to be as truthful as I could.”

Liam nodded, still processing everything. After a couple long moments, he turned to look at Paul and Louis. “So why did you all need to tell me?”

“Well, there was the part where you were eavesdropping,” Louis started, but one glare from Paul and Zayn shut him up.

“We think it will be to your benefit that you know,” Paul explained. “The lads and I are hunting a ghost up at Lake Smith.”

Zayn winced as he watched all of the color drain from Liam’s face.

“Oh my god.”

It was over. Liam was never going to trust them ever again. There went all of Zayn’s lovely dreams of…well, everything.

Liam looked like he might vomit. “It’s…?”

Zayn looked at Liam with as much empathy as he could possibly muster. “We think it might be.”

He really had to give him credit for not fainting. That was something not a lot of people could pull off.

“Breathe, son,” Paul said gently, and Liam’s breaths sounded very, very controlled.

No one said anything; they just let Liam breathe, let everything sink in.

“I…I think…” Liam stood up, walking forward a few paces, then turned around and walked back. “Do you mind if I…?”

“Take your time,” Louis said.

Liam paced back and forth for a little while, and Zayn felt worse and worse by the minute. Why did he take this job? Why the fuck did he think this was a good job to take? Now he was going to lose someone who was at least his friend at this point, and that probably meant that Niall and Harry were going to stop being his friends, too. Zayn was going to leave Philipsburg soon and never come back, and they would probably be happy about it.

“She’s the one…doing things?” Liam finally asked, arms crossed over his chest.

Zayn gulped. “That would be why the DNA and forensic tests on the bodies have come back clean.”

Liam let out a large breath in one _whoosh_ and sat back down on the couch.

“But…” Liam looked utterly overwhelmed. “Why?”

“We’re…not exactly sure,” Zayn said, and he knew it was a lie, knew he had his suspicions.

Telling from the look on Liam’s face, he knew it was a lie, too. Surprisingly, he didn’t say anything, just sat there, staring into space, shaking his head just a little bit every now and then.

“We wanted to let you know about all of this because there may be some sort of small chance that you are involved,” Paul explained after a while.

Liam turned sharply. “I’m not helping any goddamn ghost kill anyone.”

“I’m sorry, you misunderstand,” Paul corrected himself. “We think that the link the ghost has to the world may possibly be related to you. We know you don’t have anything to do with the killings that have happened.”

Liam stared into space some more, then stood up. “I think…I may need to sleep on all of this.”

“Hey, Liam,” Louis said, and Liam turned around. “We’re really sorry.”

Liam glanced at Zayn fleetingly, nodded, then turned back around and headed to his apartment.

Zayn slumped down in his seat. “Shit.”

“I think he took that rather well,” Paul reassured him. “There’s a really good chance he’ll come around.”

“What if he tries to go out to the lake tonight to see her or something?” Zayn asked, feeling a little panicked.

“I’ll stay out here tonight, okay, Malik? He won’t get past me, promise,” Paul said, and Zayn felt like sagging down onto the floor in relief. Damn, was he lucky to have Paul.

Louis got up and offered Zayn a hand, his expression sympathetic. “You’ve had a worse night than we had. Come on, let’s go get some sleep.”

\--

Zayn had had better Christmas Eves, that’s for sure.

He’d gotten up and around like normal, going out to the lobby. He’d assumed that Liam wouldn’t come to his door that morning to invite him to breakfast, and he wasn’t even sure he was invited anymore, but he had wanted to make sure.

When Liam had emerged, he saw Zayn and stopped for a few moments.

“Hey.”

“Morning,” Zayn said, feeling awkward.

There were a couple more moments of awkwardness, and then Liam had sighed.

“So do we tell Niall and Harry, then?”

Zayn blinked a couple times, then shrugged. “Up to you. You can call the shots now. Niall knows something’s up, but he doesn’t know details.”

Liam scoffed. “The little bastard. Of course he knows. Nothing gets past him.”

Zayn half-smiled, and Liam half-smiled, and for a while it felt like things were going to be okay.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Breakfast was just fine, but once it was over, Paul made Zayn and Louis go through every resource available in the van looking for ways to kill a ghost whose source was guilt. Zayn had very little doubt in his mind that it was a waste of time; Liam’s guilt over Sophia was so strong that he had a hard time believing it could be anything else. He and Louis had tried to make it somewhat fun, cranking up the van radio and blasting Christmas music, but research was research. Dry.

“Do you think he’ll figure it out?”

“Hm?” Louis hummed, looking up absently from the current book in his hands. “Who?”

Zayn made a bitch face. “Liam. Do you think he’ll figure out why Sophia is still here?”

“Malik,” Louis sighed. “I think he knew that the second he found out her ghost was here.”

Touching kindness from Louis Tomlinson. Sometimes Zayn really did wonder why he partnered with him.

They attempted to have an okay Christmas Eve again in the evening when Liam invited them to come and watch a couple of Christmas movies with him, Niall, and Harry on the lobby TV. Zayn always enjoyed a good Christmas movie, but the tension in the air that Niall and Harry were blissfully ignorant of did ruin it a bit. He kept glancing at Liam through the whole movie. Liam was staring blankly towards the TV, barely reacting when things happened. Zayn gathered up all his courage and gently put his hand over Liam’s, squeezing just a little bit, and Liam didn’t look away, just flipped his hand and gripped Zayn’s tightly.

“Happy Christmas, lads!” Niall called cheerfully as he and Harry headed out the door after the movies. “See you tomorrow night!”

“What’s tomorrow night?” Zayn asked, turning to Liam in confusion.

Liam didn’t say anything, just kept staring blankly into space. Zayn felt a strange pang of fear, and he squeezed Liam’s hand. “Li’?”

Liam finally turned and looked at Zayn, and the hollowness in his eyes made Zayn uneasy.

“You know,” Liam said, standing up and looking at his free hand. Only then did Zayn realize there was a ring there, simple and silver. “You know, Sophia and I had promise rings. That’s how far it got before I realized what was going on with me.”

Zayn didn’t know what to say, just watched Liam staring at his hand.

“When they pulled her out of the lake, they couldn’t find hers. They searched all under the dock and everything, but it wasn’t there. She must have thrown it out in the house somewhere, I guess.”

He looked back up at Zayn, and Zayn’s uneasiness increased.

“Are you okay, Li’?”

Liam blinked, then shrugged. “I think I’m going to head to bed. Bit of a…day.”

Zayn tried not to be disappointed. “Yeah, I get that. Happy Christmas, mate. See you tomorrow, yeah?”

Liam nodded, letting go of Zayn’s hand and heading to his apartment. “Goodbye, Zayn.”

For a while Zayn just stood there, not sure what exactly it was that he was feeling. His chest felt like there was a hole being compressed right in the middle. Probably not a good sign.

“Where’s Paul?” Zayn asked Louis, peeking his head into Louis’ room.

Louis looked up from yet another research book. “Showering, why?”

“Get him out here into the lobby as soon as he’s done, yeah? I’m worried about Liam.”

Louis nodded, returning to his book. “On it.”

Zayn walked back to his room, shutting the door behind him slowly. Everything felt a bit strange, off. He needed sleep, that’s what he needed. He sat down on the edge of the bed—

Zayn sprang back up like he’d sat on something hot.

Oh my god.

_The ring._

The ring.

Sophia’s ring.

Sophia’s promise ring…something tying her to Liam.

Not guilt.

_“When they pulled her out of the lake, they couldn’t find hers…”_

Zayn’s mind was reeling. The small, muted point of light that slowly spread from the bottom of the lake. The whole lake wasn’t glowing, it was just the one spot, and then it would spread out. But it wasn’t under the dock. Zayn imagined seeing Sophia alive, storming over to the lake, fuming, looking down at her hand, yanking her ring off, flinging it as hard as she could across the lake…

Oh my god.

Zayn bolted for the door. Liam. He needed to tell Liam. Liam needed to know that he’d helped him figure it out.

Paul wasn’t in the lobby yet as Zayn hurried over to the door to Liam’s apartment, yanking the door open. “Liam, Liam!”

He hurried down the hallway to the door of Liam’s bedroom and knocked on it insistently. “Liam, I think I figured something out!”

A piece of paper taped to the door caught his eye. He frowned; was this here the last time? He pulled it off gently and flipped it so he could read the writing.

_Dear someone,_

_If you’re reading this, it probably means that no one’s heard from me in a long while and I’ve gone missing around now. Well…I suppose you know what to do when someone goes missing around here._

Zayn’s stomach dropped into his shoes.

Oh my god.

No.

Oh, no.

Zayn felt like the walls around him were pressing in, pushing, squeezing, strangling. Crumpling the piece of paper in his hand, not bothering to read the rest, he stumbled back from the door. No. No. Oh god, _Liam._

Zayn’s mind was a bit of a whirlwind as he rushed back to his room as quickly as possible, looking around at all the hunting crap strewn about the floors, grabbing various different things without thinking. He could feel his heart beating like hummingbird’s wings, could hear it in his ears.

Not Liam.

_Not Liam_.

Yanking his keys off the nightstand, he sprinted out the door and as fast as he could towards the lobby door.

He had to get to Liam. He had to find him, before it was too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as you may have guessed...surprise! This chapter isn't the last chapter! (Whoops.)
> 
> BUT the good news is that I have the entire last chapter already written and finished! I will be posting it next Saturday during the day. Seriously, I have alarms set on my phone so that I do not forget. So never fear! You will have your ending! And soon!
> 
> PLEASE COMMENT. I want to know how this is going for you. I can't read minds, no matter how much I may want to. I would appreciate it. Seriously. Comment. If you hate it, tell me. If you like it, tell me. I need to know.
> 
> Much love :)


	4. Getting Out Of The Mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The final chapter!  
> I've had an absolutely incredible time writing this fic. I hope you've enjoyed it so far, and that this last section brings everything together.  
> Please comment and let me know how you liked it!  
> A WORD OF WARNING: I'm not sure how graphic I made things, but keep in mind that there are a couple spots that might possibly be gruesome.  
> Enjoy :)

A haze had entered Zayn’s mind. A very distracting, blinding haze, but not completely blinding. There, in the one spot where he could see through his mind’s haze, was Liam. And he knew if he could get to Liam, the haze could clear again.

Zayn started yanking off his shirt, the wetsuit in his free hand. He should get the damn thing on before he tried driving anywhere. It would save time later. Probably. He hurried even more, not even bothering to put his clothes back on over it when he was done. They were only going to get in the way.

He needed to find Liam.

Zayn barely registered that it had begun to snow heavily as he came to a screeching halt at the empty space where his car had been parked all week, blinking at it for a moment. “Where the hell…”

And then he remembered the windshield, the ice, Niall’s repair shop.

“Bloody buggering fuck,” he growled, feeling a giant urge to punch something. Fabulous. The one way he had of getting to the lake in time—

No, wait. The van. Breathing a sigh of near-relief, Zayn dropped a couple pieces of his gear and rummaged in his pockets, finding the spare key Paul had given him ages ago and unlocking the van just a couple of spaces down as quickly as possible. He shoved all of the gear into the trunk and practically flew to the driver’s seat.

“Damn this ancient thing,” he muttered, turning the key violently in the ignition three times before the van sputtered to life. There.

A plan. Zayn needed a plan. He rubbed a hand over his face as he sped through the town much faster than he ought to when it was snowing this much, thinking hard. First, find Liam. Second… _find Liam_. The idiot. What did he possibly think he would accomplish by going up there alone? Zayn shook his head, trying to think of other parts of the plan, instead. He knew full well why Liam had gone up there. Bloody insane little hero. Zayn shouldn’t be fond of him, not when he was this angry and terrified.

Someone had already removed all of the caution tape that had been blocking off the entrance to the Smith property, and Zayn started swearing fast as lightning under his breath, stepping even harder on the gas. He’d already had the time to take down the tape, and that couldn’t possibly be a good sign.

He parked behind the Smith house, running out and grabbing his gear from the back. Athame, check. Salt-lined jacket, check. Zayn held up an axe that reminded him of something ridiculous out of a Gothic-themed horror video game and shrugged. What the hell. Couldn’t hurt.

“Liam!” he shouted as he ran towards the lake, seeing a figure starting to walk up onto the dock. “Liam!”

Zayn thanked every star in the sky when Liam turned around. He blinked, shocked, before shaking his head.

“Zayn, what are you doing here?”

Zayn huffed, nearly out of breath as he made his way over to Liam. “What am _I_ doing here? What about you?”

Almost immediately, Liam’s face glazed over. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“No, _you_ shouldn’t have. She’s dangerous, Li’. She’ll kill you.”

“I know,” he said. “But once she’s got me, she’ll…she’ll stop killing everyone else.”

“No, Liam, she’s not still here because of that!”

Liam didn’t look convinced, turning and starting to walk out onto the dock. “We’ll see what she has to say about that.”

“Liam, _no!_ ” Zayn shouted, reaching the edge of the lake and sprinting as fast as he could towards the dock. “Get back, don’t let her know you’re here!”

But of course the small, teal glow had already started to shine far below the icy, snowy surface. Zayn made it onto the dock as the glow started spreading larger and larger, Sophia’s eerie humming floating around them all.

Liam’s face was white as a sheet as a mist started to rise, mixing in with the falling snow and creating quite a camouflaged cloud over the lake.

“Get off the dock, Liam!” Zayn yelled, yanking on Liam’s arm as hard as possible and pulling him back towards the lake’s edge, and Liam didn’t put up too much of a fight in his shock.

The hole in the middle of the lake burst open yet again, and Zayn pulled himself in front of Liam, drawing his athame as the snowy cloud of mist gathered close around the opening.

“Here, take these,” Zayn said, shoving the axe and the coat into Liam’s arms and pushing him even farther away. “And for fuck’s sakes, _get off the dock.”_

He turned just in time to see Sophia hurtling towards him. Grunting, he shoved her back with his knife hand, hearing her shriek as the blade came in contact with her.

“Stay back, Sophia!” he shouted, holding his knife in front of him menacingly.

The girl looked almost flawless, smirking at Zayn.

“You don’t hurt to touch this time, hunter,” she said victoriously, voice cold as ice as she slowly made her way towards him.

Zayn heard Liam make a strangled noise behind him, watched Sophia’s eyes flicker just over Zayn’s shoulder…

She stopped cold.

Good enough for Zayn. “ _Off of the dock, Liam! Now!”_

He bolted past the ghost, rushing for the edge of the dock and jumping out as far as he could at the end. Landing rather clumsily, he scrambled back to his feet, feeling the ice starting to crack a little under his weight, and started running towards the opening in the ice. The ring. He needed to get to the ring. And fast, before she found out what he was doing.

He paused only a moment a few feet from the entrance, remembering his lack of swimming skills. But he had to do it. Liam couldn’t come out on the ice; Sophia would kill him. He took another step towards the opening and barely had time to register that the ice had cracked beneath him before he plunged unceremoniously into the water.

Holy fuck. Zayn struggled for a moment, kicking violently until his head surfaced, gasping and spluttering in shock. _COLD._ It felt like a thousand needles were jabbing into every surface of his body. Bloody hell.

_The ring. The ring._

Resigning himself to his inevitable frostbite, Zayn gulped in a huge breath and plunged back under.

The water around him was faintly glowing teal when he finally opened his eyes. Zayn twisted all the way around, craning his head in every direction before detecting where the glow was brightest on the lake floor. He pulled his limbs in awkwardly, feeling it propel him nearly upside down, and then Zayn planted his feet on the underside of the icy surface and shot himself directly towards the light, kicking.

His chest started to throb a bit as he struggled even closer to the bottom of the lake, keeping his eyes on the bright spot of light and his free hand in front of him. Hurriedly digging his hands through clumps of mud and weeds, yanking them away, Zayn finally saw the ring. It wasn’t glowing, itself, but there was a halo of teal light all around it. It definitely matched what Zayn could vaguely remember of Liam’s.

He shoved his free hand towards it, only to feel the light pushing back against him. Shit. Kicking even harder, Zayn struggled for all he was worth to push through the light, thrusting his hand out, forcing…

His hand finally closed in around it, and Zayn started to let out a sigh of relief before he realized he was absolutely underwater. Lungs burning, he tried to turn himself around, but the hand with the ring in it was so unbearably heavy. He strained himself around, planting his feet on the ground and trying to push. His liftoff started to work, but then Zayn felt cold, slimy tendrils of weed starting to tangle around his foot. The water around him started to swish around him, faster and faster. Looking down, he realized that the weeds almost looked like a hand pulling on his ankle. The lake was fighting back. Sophia was making the lake fight back, fight to keep Zayn down there…

 _Come on, come on_ , Zayn urged himself, starting to feel a lightheadedness along with the burning in his chest. Every part of him was starting to lose feeling as he kept struggling against the weed, against the water, against the weight of the ring, against his inability to actually fucking _swim_ …

His head was starting to feel funny. Zayn’s consciousness fought against it, feeling a sleepy haze starting to close in around him. _No, stay awake, don’t do this, don’t_ …

Something plunged into the water from up above Zayn as his vision started to fade black, and he felt something warm clamp around him and tug, felt rising…

And then Zayn suddenly realized he was back on the lake surface, dripping wet, violently hacking up lake water. He struggled to open his eyes, struggled to move at all. Damn. All of his nerve endings started to warm up as he turned his head weakly and saw Liam having his own coughing fit, lake water streaming out of his hair and making little pools on the ice beneath him.

“You,” he rasped, every single bone in his body aching like hell. “You…okay?”

Liam was breathing hard, like he’d just run a hundred-meter dash. “I…I…”

Zayn suddenly remembered. The ring. Where was the ring?

The feeling in his hands slowly, slowly started to return, and he felt his fingers cramping a bit from clenching so tightly in fists. He forced his fingers to pry back, wincing in pain, _god_ that hurt…

Thank god. Zayn stared for a second at the ring in his hand, unbelieving of his luck.

He turned back to Liam, who was struggling to his knees.

“Where’s Sophia?”

Liam’s eyes were wild. “I…I don’t know what I was thinking…I sort of ran at her, and, and…”

A small, piteous groan came from behind Zayn a ways, and he whirled around as quickly as possible, brandishing his athame and pulling the ring in protectively.

Sophia was crumpled in a ball on the surface. Almost without thinking, Zayn backed up towards Liam and kept himself between him and the ghost. Zayn frowned just a little; was that the axe?

Steadily, Sophia pulled herself up onto her knees, then struggled to her feet. Zayn’s eyes widened; oh god, the axe was _in_ her. The blade was planted firmly between her neck and left shoulder, and something black was seeping down from it, over her shirt, her shorts, down her legs, onto the ice. Zayn fought the bile forming in his mouth; ghost’s blood. Liam must have thrown it at her or something.

Sophia hardly looked as beautiful as she once had. For the first time, Zayn noticed her chapped lips, mussed hair, trembling limbs, the dark circles under her eyes. And her eyes themselves; oh, Sophia looked absolutely _murderous_. Her mouth was set so that she bared all of her teeth, and she was glaring in absolute hatred at the both of them. She could not have looked more frightening if her eyes had glowed blood red.

With her right hand, Sophia took a firm hold of the axe handle and started pulling. Shit, shit, she was _taking it out_ …

Zayn quickly shook himself. He had the ring. He could do it. He could kill her. He set the ring on the ice in front of him, beckoning Liam to scoot back a little, and then he raised his athame high. He glanced at her, saw her dislodge the axe from her body, then looked back down at the ring and brought the athame down with all of his might.

A giant pulse of teal light exploded from the ring, and Zayn shielded his eyes. There was a deafening, unearthly screech, and then the light was gone.

Zayn looked back over and felt his insides turn to ice. The axe was closer to him, and Sophia lay there in a heap, taking deep, labored breaths, looking much smaller than she used to.

Shit. She was still there. She wasn’t gone. She was supposed to be gone.

What the actual fuck.

She lifted her head enough to look at them, and Zayn saw black tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. For the first time, Sophia looked afraid.

Her voice was soft, cracked, coming from trembling lips. “Liam?”

Zayn heard Liam’s breath catch in his throat, then felt Liam shift and move enough that Zayn was no longer blocking him.

Sophia was crying, truly crying. “Why, Liam?”

Liam looked like he’d been smacked square between the eyes with a mallet.

“Why, why did you do it, Liam?” Sophia wailed, and even her wailing was feeble. “Why didn’t you love me?”

Zayn quickly started racking his brains, trying to think of something, anything that could be keeping her here. He needed to find it, and find it fast.

“What?” Liam breathed, horrified.

God, it wasn’t _Liam_ again, was it? Zayn shook his head quickly. No. It wasn’t. It wouldn’t be.

The tears left curious streaks on Sophia’s face. “I loved you so much, Li’. But it wasn’t enough.”

“No, Soph’, that was never it,” Liam whispered, and Zayn’s heart ached at how tortured he sounded.

Sophia was sobbing now. “Wasn’t enough. You never loved me, never, never—”

“Yes, I did!” Liam shouted, startling Zayn from his panic.

He turned and saw that Liam was crying now, too.

Liam choked out a sob, tears running down his face. “I did need you, Soph’. I loved you. I loved you so much. I wasn’t in love with you, I know. But I did love you, loved you so much, Soph’. I wanted to be there for you, and I wanted you to be there for me. I needed you to be there. I couldn’t do it without you, but I had to do it without you, anyways. And it hurt like hell. I broke your heart, I know that, and I’m sorrier than you’ll ever realize, and I wish I hadn’t, but you absolutely broke my heart right back, so don’t you dare ever say that I didn’t love you.”

Sophia looked stunned.

Liam’s body shook with another sob, and he lifted his hand to wipe the tears from his eyes. Zayn blinked, the small flash of silver catching his eye. His eyes widened, and suddenly it fell into place.

The ring wasn’t alone.

They were a pair.

Sophia had some sort of link to both rings.

Suddenly, it made sense that Liam was constantly riddled of guilt, how Sophia could still be laying there on the ice, albeit weakened…

“Liam,” he said softly.

Liam lowered his hand, looking at Zayn in agony, and Zayn felt a pang in his chest. He gently extended his arm, holding the athame out.

“Your ring. She’s got a link to your ring, too.”

Liam stared at the athame, then at his ring, then back up at Zayn, confused.

“They’re a pair. You’ve got the other ring.”

Sophia was curled in on herself now, crying and shuddering, “oh god, what did I do, what did I do?”

Liam looked torn. “But…why are you giving that to me?”

Zayn took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s your ring. It’s got to be you.”

Liam looked horrified. “Me?”

Zayn was miserable. “I’m sorry, Liam.”

Liam stared at the knife, then turned and stared at Sophia.

Zayn gulped, hoping he wouldn’t over-step the line. “She’s not happy here, and neither are you. You can set her free.”

Liam choked on another sob, and Zayn felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest. Liam, his Liam…god, he hated seeing him like this.

Without another word, Liam slipped his ring off his finger, setting it on the ice, and took the athame from Zayn’s hand. Turning towards Sophia, he murmured, “Soph’.”

She lifted her head again, eyes widening at the sight of the athame.

He extended his free hand. “Hold my hand.”

Sophia looked shocked. “I-I can’t. You have _that_.”

She gestured at his other hand.

Liam sighed and lowered his hand. “You aren’t happy, Soph’. Staying here won’t make you happy.”

She took a couple of shaky breaths, saying nothing.

Liam bit his lip, tear tracks still shining on his cheeks. “I love you. Remember that, yeah?”

It felt like an eternity before Sophia nodded.

Liam gulped, taking a shaky breath, then lifted the athame, staring down at the ring.

Zayn closed his eyes and didn’t watch as Liam brought the athame back down, light flashing again.

No one said a word for a full minute. The only things Zayn could hear were his and Liam’s heavy breathing. Fuck, Zayn had never felt so cold in his entire life. The cold might drive him completely mad.

Doing his best to sit up, Zayn broke the silence. “Car. Need to warm up.”

Liam nodded, and Zayn felt a small glimmer of hope at how Liam’s sadness looked a lot…less.

Zayn stumbled, trying to get up onto his feet, then toppled right back over.

“Sonofabitch,” Zayn groaned. Pain. So much pain, everywhere.

“C’mon, we can do it together,” Liam said, getting up to his knees and extending a hand towards Zayn. Zayn slowly got back up, slipping under Liam’s arm and getting his arm around Liam’s waist, and together they pushed themselves up to their feet.

They had to move slowly to make sure they wouldn’t crack the ice or fall through again and because everything just ached. They bypassed the axe and the dock and took the path of least resistance towards Liam’s car, since his was parked closest. Zayn hoped that the falling snow would be enough to bury the axe by morning, just so no one else would happen to see it on accident.

They collapsed into the front seats with collective groans. Zayn watched as Liam tried five times to get the key into the ignition properly before turning it on, blasting the heat as high as possible.

“Fuck, Zayn, I’m such an idiot,” Liam said, slumping back against his seat and looking at Zayn miserably.

Zayn grinned just a little bit. “Yeah, you are.”

“She would have absolutely killed me.”

“I know.”

Liam looked a little exasperated. “I just didn’t know what else to do! I’m assuming she did that ice thing to your car…”

Zayn snorted, nodding.

“See? She could have _killed_ you. I just wanted…I just…”

Zayn understood. “You thought that if she had you, she wouldn’t want anything else.”

Liam nodded. “I thought she’d go away, once she had what she wanted...”

“Li’,” Zayn said softly. “We were gonna find a way to keep you from harm.”

Liam scowled. “But what if that had taken forever? What if you’d been here for months and other people died?”

“We weren’t gonna let that happen,” Zayn reassured him. “Plus…I could have stayed here with you for months.”

Despite their current lack of body heat, Zayn thought he caught a hint of a blush in Liam’s cheeks. “Probably wouldn’t have minded that.”

Zayn grinned sheepishly. “I didn’t know if I was just being optimistic about that, if I was just pretending you wouldn’t have minded, or if maybe sodding Louis confused you, and you thought we were dating or something, or—”

“Zayn?”

“What?”

“Shut up.”

And then Liam was leaning forward and kissing him. For a second Zayn wondered if the cold was making him hallucinate, but the shivers of warmth that ran down Zayn’s spine were enough to tell him it wasn’t a hallucination, and _holy shit_ , _Liam was kissing him_.

He kissed him back, and for a while it seemed that their first and only priority was to find all the different ways that their mouths would fit together. Zayn didn’t think he’d have felt this warm even if he hadn’t just fallen into a frozen lake in the early hours of Christmas morning.

Liam pulled back, shivering, and he muttered, “Need a shower. Warmth. Hotel. Now.”

The sky was turning gray when they both pulled up to the hotel again, parking and climbing out slowly. God, Zayn was going to need a shower, and a nap, and about four Advil—

He felt the punch before he even realized that Louis was there in front of him.

 _“You stupid bastard_ ,” Louis bellowed at him as he crumpled back against the car.

Zayn put a hand to his face, too exhausted to even react much further.

Louis grabbed his shoulders and shook him so much that Zayn felt dizzy all over again

 _“What the actual fuck were you thinking Paul and I have been worried sick I mean we even called Niall and Harry asking after you and we didn’t have our fucking van what the_ fuck _Zayn_ —”

“Oi, Tommo, get off him!”

Paul jerked Louis away from Zayn. “Malik, you okay?”

Zayn wasn’t sure how he was still conscious. “She’s finished. I’m peachy. You?”

And then he collapsed.

\--

 _White Christmas_ was playing softly when Zayn woke up, and there was a hand gently nudging his shoulder.

“Sit up, Malik, and take these. It’ll help some more.”

Zayn groaned and propped himself up on his elbow, taking the pills and the mug from Paul and downing them. Cocoa, warm and smooth. Paul was an angel.

Slumping back down when Paul stood to take the mug back, Zayn realized he was on the big plush couch in the middle of the lobby, covered in a couple of blankets. Someone had changed him out of the thrice-be-damned wetsuit and into soft pajamas. He also realized he was not alone on the couch.

“All right, Li’?” he asked, recognizing the arm slung over him.

“Better,” Liam mumbled, hiding his face in the back of Zayn’s neck, planting a small kiss on the exposed skin there. Zayn felt a pleasant shiver thrill through him.

He turned himself around gently to look at him, the hotel owner’s son. Liam’s face was a little unreadable.

“Sure you’re okay?” Zayn whispered, concerned.

Liam smiled just a little. “Better than I expected, actually.”

Oh, good. Thank god. “Glad to hear it.”

“Hm.”

Liam nudged his nose up against Zayn’s, and for a little while they just laid there, nose-to-nose, lips just barely brushing from time to time.

“Finally.”

Zayn turned his head around and saw Niall sitting in one of the large chairs nearby, looking at them.

“Sorry?”

“Finally. Took you two long enough.”

Zayn felt his face grow hot, and he heard Liam say, “go to hell, Horan” without any conviction at all. All Niall did was laugh a little bit and look back at his phone.

“I still say we should have brought them the glazed ones.”

“Lou’, it’s _Christmas Day_. Who doesn’t want a cinnamon roll on Christmas Day?”

“But glazed donuts, Harold!”

“That’s not my name.”

“If you say so.”

Zayn shut his eyes. “Oi, would you two like to keep it down over there?”

Harry and Louis walked over into sight, smiling.

“So they’re awake now, then?” Louis teased, smirking at them.

All Zayn did was glare. “Fuck you, Tomlinson.”

Louis had the good grace to look a little ashamed. “Sorry for the punch, Malik. I just…dammit, don’t scare me like that again.”

Zayn felt a little sheepish, himself. “Should’ve come and brought you with me.”

“Yeah, you should’ve. Trained professionals who know how to swim.”

“You two were _swimming_ in the lake, too?” Harry asked, shocked.

And so, of course, Zayn and Liam had to sit up and tell the entire story, Louis interjecting every now and then about how they should have brought him and Paul for help, until Zayn heard the clock tower outside chime ten.

“How long was I asleep?” he asked.

Niall shrugged. “’Bout four hours. You needed it, mate, you two were absolutely weary.”

“God, what a night,” Liam muttered, rubbing a hand over his face.

“Happy Christmas, you lot,” Paul said, coming back into the lobby from Liam’s apartment, somehow holding six mugs all at once.

Harry’s face brightened. “Oh, that’s right! Louis and I went back to the bakery and made some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We’ve got them right here, help yourselves.”

It was probably the weirdest Christmas Day ever, Zayn noted, looking around him. At least someone was genius enough to start playing Bing Crosby’s Christmas album, so the air was full of Bing’s voice with the Andrews Sisters. Niall and Louis were having a competition of who could do the best celebrity impressions, and Harry was watching them in amusement, chewing a bite of his cinnamon roll. Paul and Liam were having a casual conversation, flipping through the television, trying to find the Disney World Christmas Day Parade at Liam’s request. Liam glanced back at Zayn for a moment and smiled, and Zayn couldn’t help grinning back. He wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen with the two of them, how anything was going to work out, but he couldn’t help but feel that it was going to be something great. He was fine not knowing.

Right now, with everyone, this weird Christmas Day was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMMENT and let me know your thoughts! I'm honestly so excited to know what you all thought. If you wanna find me on tumblr, I'm at vintageot5.tumblr.com :) feel free to shoot me a message!  
> Much love :)

**Author's Note:**

> You've survived. *round of applause*
> 
> I have no idea what just went on in your head while you read that. You could have hated it completely. You could have been annoyed by my inaccuracy to the genre. You could be indifferent. You could have even liked it a little bit, if the spirit so moved you.
> 
> COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW. I can't read minds. God, I wish, but I can't. I want to know what you think! COMMENT PRETTY PLEASE! :)
> 
> Much love.


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